RITES OF INITIATION IN ETHNOLOGY
BY EDWARD BRONGERSMA

“In Ethnology” is the first of the three parts of “Rites of Initiation”, the fourth section of “Boys and their Sexuality”, the third chapter of Loving Boys, the encyclopaedic study of Greek love by the eminent Dutch lawyer, Edward Brongersma, of which the first volume (including this) was published by Global Academic Publishers in New York in 1986.

Puberty is traditionally thought of as the time of life when a boy changes into a man. For most of those peoples whom we, from our lofty cultural perspective, define as “primitive”, it is therefore the occasion of great ceremonies and celebrations at which the boy coming of age is taught the mysteries and traditions of the tribe. Initiation at this time marks the emancipation of the boy from his parental, especially maternal, authority.^[1]

For hunters and warriors it is of the utmost importance that they be hardened against pain and injury. Thus the young candidate aspiring to adult male dignity is subjected to all kinds of trials. He is often required to endure excruciating pain without complaint, and without shedding tears.

Often his genitals are tortured. During this period their growth and development are uppermost in the boy’s mind; they are of utmost importance to him as a source of pleasure, and, moreover, they are more sensitive than at any time in his life before or since. Being soft, they lend themselves well to transformation. Operations on the genitals, therefore, are most impressive and awe-inspiring.

It would be impossible to do justice in a brief summary to all that has been discovered about puberty rites and initiation in all the tribes of the world. Many volumes have been filled with descriptions and reflections. A few examples may serve to take measure of this field.

Boys who have just reached puberty are generally separated from their village community for a shorter or a longer period, sometimes up to several months. Often they receive a new name, are instructed in the traditions of the tribe and are taught – if this is still necessary – how a man can best satisfy the sexual needs of a woman. The Mangaina of Polynesia for instance show the boy how to delay his orgasm and the various positions of intercourse; the following nights he must practice. At first his preference runs to experienced women, for they can give him greater pleasure. Later he tries out ten, perhaps even sixty or seventy, different girls.^[2] In one New Guinea tribe the encampment where boys are initiated is equipped with dolls having gigantic sexual parts, male and female, which the boys have to handle. They are also taught to excite themselves frequently by inserting certain lianas in the urethral opening on the penis tip.^[3]

In many tribes the instructor or other men have sexual intercourse with the candidates, who may also be trained to perform sexually enticing dances. Often the boys must endure hunger or thirst or are prevented from sleeping; stripped naked they may be exposed to the cold of night or thrown on a hill of biting ants. Between these trials they may be scolded or beaten up at unexpected times. They may be frightened by tales of magicians or mythical beasts coming to take them by surprise and devour them. Some New Guinea tribes mix male sperm into the boys’ food, or give them slices of coconut spread with adult male seed.^[4]

The Poro community in Sierra Leone forbids the boys, during the months they pass in their initiation camps, to wear any kind of clothing. It is also strictly forbidden for them to touch their penises or let them be touched by another person (Should they disobey this stricture the penis will fall off!). Since intercourse is practiced from an early age among the children, all candidates have become quite accustomed to receiving regular sexual relief; this suddenly imposed abstinence, then, soon becomes a torture and results in intense, persistent erections. Sexual tension makes it almost impossible for the boys to listen attentively to the instruction they receive. When an instructor sees that a particular boy is not listening he makes him stand up. A comrade sits down opposite him and looks at the boy’s penis standing stiffly on end. Two other candidates take up positions behind, each holding a sprig; now they use it to tickle the neck of the inattentive boy. Gradually the tickling turns into light switching, then harder whipping, descending along the back, until at last the boy is so excited that he has a spontaneous orgasm and ejaculates, after which the observing candidate signals the others to stop. In this way detumescence is achieved without a touch to the penis. The boy thus treated remains standing rigid for about a minute. Then, after a piercing cry of pleasure, sits down among his comrades.^[5]

In the mountains of Central India mature boys carve a kind of vagina cleft in the stem of a plant. They make this cleft slippery with their spittle, and then the younger boys, who are stripped naked, have to take turns inserting their penises in it while at the same time they are beaten with a stalk.^[6]

In a large majority of primitive peoples initiation culminates in painful operations on the genitals, usually in the belief that this bestows upon the organ increased power and vitality.^[7] A rare example is the Tongan practice of excising of one of the testicles: with a sharpened piece of bamboo the left side of the scrotum is opened, the testicle pressed out and cut off. This is supposed to prevent the birth of twins and keep one from getting sick. A traveller to the Tonga Islands reported, “Boys when they reach 12 or 14 egg one another on to go to the the ‘surgeon’; there, each demands to be first operated on, thus showing his courage.^[8] With the Mahalbi, a Sudanese hunting tribe, boys are made to dance naked until they go into a sort of trance. Then a man wrapped in leopard skins appears and throws himself upon the boys, wounding them “especially in the genitals, so that they will bear scars from this for the rest of their lives. Some pretend that one of their testicles is torn out (…) Some reports stress the fact that one of the testicles is smashed or crushed.^[9] 

In Tonga boys wish to beautify their genitals by having their glans’ tattooed with ornamental designs, a process which must be exceedingly painful.^[10] Into the skin of the glans are scratched symbols which appear in their full glory only during erection.^[11]

Of the pre-Columbian peoples of Mexico it is said, “They cut their genitals and make a cleft between skin and flesh, creating a hole large enough to allow the continuous passage of a thick rope for as long as the penitent desired or could stand it. At times they pulled through ten yards, often fifteen, and if someone fainted as a result of the excruciating pain, or from loss of blood, they said this proved he had already had relations with a woman. For it was girls and lads still thought to be chaste who had to make this sacrifice with their genitals. (…) On other occasions boys performed the most horrible and painful sacrifices tied together in the temples. They stood in a row. Each pierced his male member from side to side, and through the hole so made they pulled as long a cord as possible, so that finally they were all laced up together with this cord. With the blood pouring from their genitals they anointed their idol, and he who did this most lavishly was considered the most courageous. The boys started with these rites when they were still very young, and it is dreadful how they were addicted to them.^[12]

Even today the Pasum of New Guinea make blood offerings with their penises. During initiation the boy’s foreskin is pulled back and tightly tied in this position. The boy then must stand patiently until the congested blood has swelled his glans to its maximum. Then an uncle of the candidate rips the skin of the glans with an opossum tooth; the blood which gushes forth must fall in the shape of a bird’s nest on a specially prepared spot. The uncle himself commences the sacrifice by inserting a blade of grass into his urethra and pulling it in and out until he is bleeding.^[13] We will come back to this theme in Chapter Four.

All of this is intended as an offering, but the Batak on Sumatra, who also pierce the penis, do it for quite another reason: it is to thicken it so it will excite the woman more during intercourse. Schadt reported, “The Bataks made incision in the skin of the penis and insert little stones therein. Some males have quite a number of these, arranged in a spiral around the shaft.^[14] (The same kind of practice is reported among Sierra Leone Negroes by Gervais.^[15]) It is years before a youth who has under gone such an operation can once again perform complete intercourse. In the meantime he must satisfy himself by masturbation, which boys do in groups in their common house. He nevertheless proudly displays himself as ‘a hero of love play’, showing by tattoos on his body just how many ‘knobs’ he possesses.^[16]

The Dajaks on Borneo accomplish the same thing with their “ampallang”, a four-centimetre-long metal stave carried diagonally through the glans. The incision through which the ampallang is thrust is made upon the arrival of puberty.^[17] The glans is first flattened for two days between two discs of bamboo lashed together, while cold compresses are applied to the penis tip. Then the glans is pierced from side to side by a bamboo awl just above the urethral opening. A pigeon’s feather, made smooth with oil, is inserted in the hole and every day thereafter changed in order to keep the passage open. Cold compresses are continued until the wound is healed, at which time, when the boy is ready for intercourse, the ampallang is substituted for the feather.^[18] In the age of Alexander the Great the same operation was traditional in India.^[19]

The most terrifying mutilation of the male member is carried out by the Australian aborigines. To perform the so-called mica operation as safely and easily as possible, a pointed kangaroo bone is inserted into the urethra and pressed down until it pierces the penis and comes out again just in front of the scrotum. A man then sits down upon the boy and, turning his back to him, grasps the penis and pulls it upwards to stretch the urethra, Then the tribal doctor approaches him and with a sharpened piece of flint splits the urethra its full length from scrotum to glans.^[20] Not infrequently young adult male spectators spontaneously advise that the cut go a bit deeper.^[21] A slightly different description is given by Ashley Montagu^[22] .“After the operation the young men may go about perfectly naked, which they are forbidden to do previously. They are now permitted to marry (…) In the moment of erection the penis is broad and flat and the sperm is ejaculated outside the vagina (…) Among some 300 natives there were only three or four who had not been operated, and it appeared that upon these devolved the duty of insuring the propagation of the tribe. One of these, who had been no doubt specially selected for the purpose, was a splendid specimen of humanity, fully six feet two inches in stature.^[23] Intercourse is strictly forbidden to boys who have not yet been operated upon; they copulate only with older friends who have already received the operation. The older boy lies on his back, with his penis on his belly, and the younger puts his member in the penis-groove of his friend, moving it to and fro until climax is achieved.^[24]

According to Bettelheim, the practice of subincision is actually spreading, not decreasing, and the same applies to circumcision in Africa and Australia.^[25] Circumcision, in which the foreskin is incised or removed completely, is the most wide-spread mutilation of male children.

The opposite practice, artificial enlargement of the foreskin, is seldom encountered. The Bakari Indians in Brazil, who used to live completely naked, make their boys at puberty start wearing a loincord. “The penis is carried upwards along the body under this cord in such a way that the top of the foreskin is pinched off. This practice begins as soon as the boy is showing frequent erections. He tries to sustain this stretching of his foreskin for days. The irritating pubic hair is pulled out.^[26] In ancient Greece and Rome, where nudity was natural in the public baths and at sporting events, it was considered improper to show an uncovered glans. Athletes therefore used to tie up their foreskins with a small string before wrestling. Jews and other circumcised men covered their penises in the baths with a metal or leather case.^[27]

Continue to Rites of Initiation: Circumcision

^[1] Morris, D., The Human Zoo. New York: Dell, 1976, 189. [Author’s reference]

^[2] Ussel, J. M. W. van, Intimiteit. Deventer: Ven Loghum Slaterus, 1975, 91- 92. [Author’s reference]

^[3] Jensen, A. E., Beschneidung und Reifezeremonien bei Naturvölkern. Frankfurt am Main: Strecker & Schröder. 1933, 85. [Author’s reference]

^[4] Jensen, A. E., Beschneidung und Reifezeremonien bei Naturvölkern. Frankfurt am Main: Strecker & Schröder. 1933, 86. Bühler-Oppenheim, K., L’initiation. Revue Ciba 61: 2178-2218, 1947, 2194. [Author’s reference]

^[5] Personal communication by a traveller in Africa; Gerval, D., L’âge des gestes. Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1957, 90, 101, 112, 252. [Author’s references]

^[6] Elwin, V., Maison des jeunes chez les Muria. Paris: Gallimard, 1959, 94. [Author’s reference]

^[7] Bettelheim, B., Symbolic Wounds–Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York: Collier, 1962, 78. [Author’s reference]

^[8] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 539. [Author’s reference]

^[9] Jensen, A. E., Beschneidung und Reifezeremonien bei Naturvölkern. Frankfurt am Main: Strecker & Schröder. 1933, 45. [Author’s reference]

^[10] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 75. [Author’s reference]

^[11] Treffz, H. A. W., “Homosexualität in Indonesien und Ozeanien” in Him 7: 18-19, 1972 [Author’s reference].

^[12] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 543, 954. [Author’s reference]

^[13] Schmitz, C. A., Die Initiation bei den Pasum in Neuguinea. In: Popp (Ed.), Initiation. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1969, 129-130. [Author’s reference]

^[14] , O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 921. [Author’s reference]

^[15] Gerval, D., L’âge des gestes. Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1957, 113. [Author’s reference]

^[16] Treffz, H. A. W., Homosexualität in Indonesien und Ozeanien. Him 7: 18-19, 1972, [Author’s reference]

^[17] Borneman 1978, 54 [Author’s reference, but it is not clear which of two works by E. Borneman published in 1978 and listed in his bibliography is meant]

^[18] , O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 921. [Author’s reference]

^[19] Peyrefitte, R., Alexandre le Grand. Paris: Albin Michel, 1981, 296. [Author’s reference]

^[20] Bettelheim, B., Symbolic Wounds–Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York: Collier, 1962, 17, 100; Karsch-Haack, F., Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker. München: Reinhardt, 1911, 68-73 [Author’s references].

^[21] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 526-528. [Author’s reference]

^[22] Ashley Montagu, M. F., Ritual Mutilation Among Primitive Peoples. Ciba Symposia 8, 7: 421-436, 1946, 427-428. [Author’s reference]

^[23] Sutor, J. (Docteur Jacobus X.), The Erogenous Zones of the World, by a French Army Surgeon. New York: Book Awards, 1964, 265-266. [Author’s reference]

^[24] Karsch-Haack, F., Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker. München: Reinhardt, 1911, 78. [Author’s reference]

^[25] Bettelheim, B., Symbolic Wounds–Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York: Collier, 1962, 28. [Author’s reference]

^[26] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 493. [Author’s reference]

^[27] Stoll, O., Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie. Leipzig: Veit, 1908, 496. [Author’s reference]