Wounds: Tattoos?
I know that in Somoa the art of tattooing of a person is a rite of passage for both men and women. This is a very painful procedure as it is done with fish bones and a hammer like implement. The reason I have been thinking about this is that ever since I read Bly's stuff on wounding and rites of passage I've been seeking to find such a rite that might work in America. So, I thought, I have tattoos, they hurt, and are a wound that doesn't go away. Why not? Opinions?
posted by Kobra @ 10/23/2006 07:48:00 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I could see tattoos as rites of passage if there is a story to go along with them. If a man got tattoed and then went mountain biking (or something else significant)with other men, there might be some kind of rite of passage there.
I read about a rite of passage about the same time I first read Robert Bly. It's done with your son when he turns 12 or 13. He is called out by his father and friends for a camping or some such weekend excursion. The father stands out side with a group of men and calls out to his son. The son and mother come to the front door and they step out. When the son is called the mother pleads with the son not to go, that it might be too dangerous. The father insists and the boy comes out. Of course mom is in on this ceremony. The boy goes with his father not knowing what will happen. There are various adventures planned in advance for the weekend. Some could be dangerous or at least appear dangerous. That doesn't help the men who are a little beyond that age. Perhaps one could think of a similar thing with out the calling out from mother but some other kind of hazing from the friends.
That's too tame for my taste, and I don't think the father should be involved beyond a certain point. There should be a physical wound (pain) with lasting effects such as Bly describes the Aboriginal method. What you are describing sounds like some kind of Christian camping excursion. I think there needs to be more trauma. Bly describes a mock kidnapping with screaming as well. That's what I'm talking about!
In this day and age the Father would have to be involved
Yeah, most everyone is an Ebanezer.
Whatever the rite is, it has to be understood as such, at least in your cultural enclave.
It also has to produce the kind of person that is wanted. I fear that part of the reason that we don't have rites of passage is that the kind of person turned out by the culture is exactly what it wants, a consumeristic cog who wants to be taken care of by the government.
I think smaller rites we did, even if they involved losing a tooth or something like that are just putting a band-aid on a cancer.
Though I still think rites could be quite useful, especially for entrance into organizations that run on countercultural values. We should have rites for those going into church government to shed all vestiges of corporate mindset. The burning of business clothing, the defacing of corporate logos.
Well, those in church government just have to give up their diapers. In fact, it appears that Lutheran church government, at least in my experience, is based on the disgusting political-cultural models we witness today in Washington.
I agree, Rick. Whatever it is it must be sacred, with reasonably controllable ends. It should in fact produce a man like we saw coming home from WWII. It should produce a Band of Brothers so to speak who have all "seen the elephant" and survived with only a wound. Just this week, while thinking about this, I recalled the movie, "A Man Called Horse." If you want to see a rite, watch that movie! OUCH!
The rite I speak of actually was something ancient conjured up by some tribe somewhere in the world. The wound that it meant to inflict was psychic, like Bly's boy stealing the golden ball from under mother's pillow. I hadn't heard that it was some evangelical pussy ass rite. God forbid that crap!! I suppose we could create something like what the indians use to do; hang the boy from his arms between two sapplings nearly ripping him apart while shoving bits of bone and rock under his skin...
Perhaps a group of guys going through a form of Navy Seal Training or a form Marine Corps sniper school, Force Recon. Where the tatoo has deeper meaning and the boy has a band of brothers he's gone through it with...I would have suggested the Marine Corps program called Devil Pups but it lets girls in now and is pussy compared to what it was when I went through it.
ROFL! Sounds good, bro.
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