Comparison of Native American and Mexican American Rites of Passage - Report Example

Comparison of Native American and Mexican American Rites of Passage There is no doubt in the fact that living in the social environment should be regarded as one of the most essential prerequisites for the development of the inner potential of a human being. Indeed, if it had not been for this platform a considerable number of characteristic features could not have developed. That is why socialization plays extremely important role lives of the people. Many cultures around the world have developed various rituals that mark transition of a person from childhood to adult life. They are called rites of passage. In spite of the fact that their ultimate goal is the same, they might be different in various aspects. This paper will analyze the way Native American as well as Mexican American rites of passage differ. To begin with, it would be advantageous to introduce an exemplary ritual from each culture. Speaking of the former, one should note that young men in different tribes that live in North America had to go through the ritual that is called vision quest (Seaward, 1999, 14). According to it, a boy had to spend from one to four days in the wilderness in order to embark on a spiritual journey that is likely to provide him with guidelines will help him in life. Despite the fact that there could have been local varieties, the general rule was the following: a boy went to a secluded place where he had to contemplate the nature and seek guidance from his guardian animal (Mahdi, 1996, 353). Some tribes might have used substances in order to provoke the alteration of mind. After a boy received wisdom from the spirit, he was considered to be a man and was fully accepted into the social environment. As for Mexican Americans, one should note the following characteristic rituals. In late teens boy entered universal training for warriors. However, it was not finished until they were able to capture an enemy, bring the latter to the village where one lived and sacrifice the enemy to the gods. It was thought that the more enemies a boy was able to capture, the highest social status he will receive from the start (Carrasco & Sessions, 1998, 98). It was imperative that the boy must capture the enemy himself and bring it to the village without any help. If one takes a look at these two seemingly different rituals, one will be able to say that they reflect two opposite approaches towards rites of passage. Nevertheless, there are points which these two examples have in common: they are focused to teach young boys knowledge that will be extremely useful for them in their future life. However, this is the only aspect that they share. Thus, Native Indians suggest that wisdom is what should guide a person through one’s life. That is why their rite put emphasis on exchange of wisdom between the guardian animal and the person who seeks guidance. This is quite understandable since the elders wanted young boys to be ready to accept the traditions of the tribe and a significant personal evolution was needed for it. On the other hand, Mexican Americans constructed their rite of passage in a way that would put emphasis on warrior abilities that are likely to be useful for a young man in future. Indeed, the content of the rite reflects all stages of daily life of a warrior: preparation for battle, capturing an enemy and sacrificing it to gods. An important point to state is that killing an enemy right away was not required. The reason for it may be seen in the following logic: if one wants to capture an enemy, one has to feature highly developed skills, while killing an enemy may be accidental. However, a broader analysis of culture as well as social environment would reveal differences on other levels. Thus, Native Americans supported harmony in the world. They did not see nature as a source that they could exploit, but rather their Mother. They hunted animals only when in great needs of meat. Even the way they fought showed high dignity: on the battlefield they could have showed their military supremacy by refraining from killing opponents and the latter would surrender knowing that they were excelled in warrior abilities. The widely shared belief about cruelty of Native American is not based on reality: even scalping which is often attributed to them was started by white soldiers. In other words, the social environment of this group of people was relatively peaceful and looked for ways to avoid conflicts. Contrary to that, Mexican Americans were living in the environment that was full of hostile enemies. For them, kill or be killed was a daily question of survival. In the development of their society they could rely on war as the major platform for facilitation of contacts with other tribes. In addition to that, their gods were often appeased by human sacrifices. It is quite obvious that such spiritual tradition had a great impact on the worldview of the people and made them more violent and less sensitive to killing. This particular perception of social environment was enshrined on their rite of passage which nurtured a real warrior out of a young boy. So, one might suggest that the culture of Mexican Americans saw conflicts as an irreplaceable part of reality. Finally, the biggest difference that one is able to find between the two rites of passage that were noted in the paper is the vector of guidance. The first rite, namely vision question, might be seen as a variant of introspection. Indeed, a person was encouraged to go on a journey to explore one’s inner world and make sure that it holds enough space for maturity. In order to minimize the contact with the outer world, boys were sent to secluded place so that they could not be distracted by anything. That is why one might note that the most important part of the rite in question is performed in the mind of a person and does not require any kind of physical efforts. On the other hand, the rite of passage that was practiced by Mexican Americans adopted a completely different vision of the reality. In the course of it, all the actions that transformed a boy into a man were carried out in the external world. Indeed, he had to interact with enemies, make considerable physical efforts and finally kill the enemy, namely an irreversible change in the world. In other words, for this group of people the emphasis of socialization had to be placed on the outer world and not personal evolution of a person. This kind of thinking is reflected in various aspects of their rite of passage which is primarily focused on actions that are carried out to change the social, not personal state of affairs. Having examined all the differences between rites of passage that are found in the cultures of Native Americans and Mexican Americans, one is able to come to the following logical conclusion: they feature a completely different approach towards the idea of what makes a man out of a boy. On the one hand, Native Americans argued that personal evolution that is obtained thought spiritual guidance of guardian animals is an essential element of socialization. On the other hand, Mexican Americans saw participation in military affairs and capturing an enemy to be a threshold in one’s life. These differences are conditioned by peculiarities of culture, religion and social environment in which the above mentioned groups of people lived. References Carrasco, D., & Sessions, S. (1998). Daily life of the Aztecs people of the sun and earth. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. Mahdi, L. (1996). Crossroads: The quest for contemporary rites of passage. Chicago, IL: Open Court. Seaward, B. (1999). Managing stress principles and strategies for health and wellbeing. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Read More