in traditional societies … growing up was a matter of survival … the transition from the naiveté and dependency of childhood to adult sensibilities that sacrifice comfort and sloth in service to the common interest
psychodynamics ancestors rites of passage
six stages of ancestral passage to adulthood
varied in form, intensity, duration, and cultural accoutrements, but essentially they were comparable around the world:
- departure from home, … not with a polite request, but suddenly and decisively
- a ceremony of death, ranging from being buried in the earth, to immersion, to an effacement of one’s known referents
- a ceremony of rebirth because an emergent being, a differentiated psychology, was dawning
- they were given the teachings, in three categories:
- the archetypal stories of the creation, of the gods, of the tribal history;
- the general roles and polity of adulthood in that culture;
- the specific tools of hunting, fishing, child-bearing, and agriculture unique to that tribe.
- an ordeal of some kind, often involving isolation … one learn to cope with fear and find internal resources
- after prolonged separation, there was the return to the community as a separated adult
- in this way did young people transition from the naiveté, dependency, and avoidances of childhood to the expectations of adulthood