I am piloting a new project this year at Not Back to School Camp called “On Becoming a Man.” I thought it would be a salient topic for many of the 13-18 year old males at camp. This is how I described it for campers looking for a project at camp:
“This project is for campers who are interested in becoming a man. It will include exploring the issues of what it means to be a man, the difference between manhood and boyhood, and the freedoms and responsibilities of manhood. Each participant will be supported in coming to a personal definition of manhood and, if they so decide, design a ritual entry into manhood.”
I’ve been thinking about the meaning of manhood a lot for many years, so I feel prepared for that part of the project. I am least prepared for the part where we design a coming of age ritual for each camper who chooses to have one. I’m doing some reading on it (Imber-Black and Roberts Rituals For Our Times) but not having had a coming of age ritual myself, I have next to no concrete examples. The gom jabbar ritual from Dune springs to mind, but I don’t have a poison needle or a pain box. (Plus I don’t think the NBTSC consent forms cover the possibility of death by poison needle!)
Did you have or have you witnessed a great coming of age ritual? Why was it great? Any horror stories? Thanks!
Nathen's Miraculous Escape 
August 8, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Sounds interesting nathen… The gender issues involved with manhood, and the possible cultural appropriation issues with coming of age rituals can get tricky… That said, I’m glad you’re on it and know you will handle it amazingly.
There is a network of people from the wilderness awareness/primitive skills world that have been organizing and developing rites of passages for boys under the guidance of Paul Raphael of the Grand Traverse Band of Odawa in Michigan. It’s a process, but the main event, so to speak, consists of young men who have already been through the initiation starting and tending a large “sacred” fire. The initiates then each take a coal from that fire back to their own solo campsites where they have to build and tend a fire from their coal. They spend the night/day at their camp in the wilderness alone with occassional, unannounced visits from individual “uncles” or significant men/people in the boy’s life.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing how your project develops. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it down to F&W while you are there!
August 10, 2011 at 1:44 pm
My long reply is here.
http://davidvs.blogspot.com/2011/08/deconstructing-bnei-mitzvah-coming-of.html
September 8, 2011 at 8:56 am
A friend of mine had a coming of age/manhood initiation and one of the trials he performed, since a little discomfort is usually part of manhood rituals, is he had to cross a cold water pond after dark, in the nip. He was blindfolded, but there was someone in the water to help him should he have trouble and people on the bank called to him to keep him going in the right direction. He was partially buried in the cold ground too, to symbolize rebirth. I can’t remember all the other things he did, but it took a couple of hours. I think that the older men “abducted” him at the start. I know there was also a part where the older men talked about their own transition and the things they had learned about being a man v. being a boy. It’s been about 20 years ago, so I don’t remember much of it, but my friend found the ritual really helpful in feeling truly adult. A similar cold water trial would be reasonably safe if some simple precautions were followed, and would be possible to do at NBTSC, but better to wear swim trunks at camp.