Summary: <a href="http://on-boys.blubrry.net/134-rites-of-passage/japanese-garden-bridge/" rel="attachment wp-att-694"></a>Photo by Linda Severson via Flickr<br> <br> <br> <br> Traditional societies had many (often elaborate) rites of passage for boys and girls.<br> <br> On the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, boys become men after diving off rickety 40 foot platforms -- toward the ground. (You may have seen or heard about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Mq6rCfYtU">this tradition</a> on National Geographic.) In the Sioux culture, young boys were raised predominantly by their mothers; as they became men, their fathers took over their training. And in some traditional African tribes, a boy's passage to manhood is marked by time alone in nature and circumcision.<br> <br> Here in the United States (and in most developed countries), there aren't really any well-recognized rites of passage to adulthood. Sure, many Jewish boys still have a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and many Christians become full adult members in their churches after undergoing Confirmation, but neither ritual is well-recognized in the larger world as a marker of adulthood. Instead, the line between childhood, adolescence and adulthood remains blurry.<br> <br> According to <a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/male-rites-of-passage-from-around-the-world/">The Art of Manliness</a>,<br> <br> "At the heart of the modern crisis of manhood is the extension of adolescence, a boyhood which is stretching on for a longer and longer period of time. Once thought to end in a man’s 20s at the latest, men are extending their adolescence into their 30’s and in some especially sad cases, their 40’s.<br> <br> But in some ways it’s not their fault. It’s the fault of a culture in which <a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/coming-of-age-the-importance-of-male-rites-of-passage/">rites of passage </a>have all but disappeared, leaving men adrift and lost, never sure when and if they’ve become men. Today’s men lack a community of males to initiate them into manhood and to recognize their new status.<br> <br> Across time and place, cultures have inherently understood that without clear markers on the journey to manhood, males have a difficult time making the transition and can drift along indefinitely."<br> <br> In this episode, Janet discusses:<br> <br> * Why men -- not women -- must lead rites of passage for boys<br> * How rites of passage affirm the value (and role) of men in society<br> * Common components of traditional rites of passage<br> * The risks (& harms) that can occur when boys initiate themselves into manhood<br> * Barriers to rites of passage in the modern world (a culture of individualism, mistrust of religion and 'strangers')<br> * How (& why) to create your own rites of passage<br> <br> Links we mentioned (or should have) in Episode 134:<br> <a href="https://innerguideexpeditions.com/">Inner Guide Expeditions</a>
