Female Rites Of Passage

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Female Initiation Rites Page 94 Initiation rites amongst men and women are not openly practiced or accepted within western cultures. However, this article discusses some of the different female initiation rites amongst non-western cultures. Female rite of passage ceremonies have been practiced in non-western cultures for centuries. The ceremonies are based upon religious beliefs that vary from being heavily tattooed to performing genital mutilation. The understanding in the different cultures is the rite of passage transforms the child in to adult hood. It also prepares the child for her new life as a woman. The tattooing represents where the woman came from. They are tattooed heaviest when they will live far away from their birth village with their new husbands and families. Although it is of religious decent, I do not agree with the genital mutilation. There is positively no reason for any female to have to endure that. In my opinion it’s a violation of human rights. However, due to lack of education and simply not knowing any better these women feel it is their obligation to have it done. Without it, they could be ostricized from their village. It is a part of their culture that western civilization will never adopt or understand. In my opinion, there is a very valid and important point made in this article. It states when a female rite of passage is performed, the child knows, without question, they have transformed from being a child into adult. They know exactly what is expected of them moving forward. The other people within their tribe and village will also treat them accordingly without question. In western culture, adult hood is divvied up into pieces. We are given a license to drive at sixteen. We can vote and get married at eighteen. We can consume alcohol legally at twenty one and so on. The article

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