Akamba Initiation Rites and Culture Themes
Few features of primitive societies are more persistent, more meaningful to the people, and apparently more inconsistent with the aims and methods of Christian missionary activity than initiation or puberty rites. This seems to be especially true in a number of areas of Africa and South-east Asia, w...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publishing
1962
|
| In: |
Practical anthropology
Year: 1962, Volume: 9, Issue: 4, Pages: 145-153 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Few features of primitive societies are more persistent, more meaningful to the people, and apparently more inconsistent with the aims and methods of Christian missionary activity than initiation or puberty rites. This seems to be especially true in a number of areas of Africa and South-east Asia, where such rites are often viewed by missionaries as major threats to the proper education of children and the purity of the church. On the other hand, many people claiming to be Christians in every sense still insist on perpetuating initiation ceremonies. Some missionaries have undertaken to work out “functional substitutes,” but none of these has ever been really successful. The originators of these substitutes usually failed to understand the full significance of the indigenous rites and generally were unaware of the intense psychological and social impact which ceremonies have, not only for those being initiated, but also for those who administer the initiation. In this paper Nida writes a review article on one very perceptive study of this problem summarizing its functional significance and discussing its missionary implications. It is followed in the next article by a discussion of a possible reinterpretation of the data. |
|---|---|
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Practical anthropology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/009182966200900401 |