Adolescent Initiation Ceremonies: A Cross-Cultural Code

Schlegel, Alice; Barry, Herbert

doi:10.2307/3773291

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…For instance, some groups haze outside of formalized initiations and many initiations occur without hazing (e.g., Schlegel and Barry, 1979;Lewis, 1992;Nuwer, 2000). Hazing is defined here as the generation of induction costs (i.e., part of the experiences necessary to be acknowledged as a "legitimate" group member) that appear unattributable to group-relevant assessments, preparations, or chance.…”

Section: A Provisional Definition Of Hazingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The startling variety of ordeals and privations suffered by hazees includes physical assaults, scarification, sleep deprivation, servile labor, and many others. Hazing is common throughout much of the world, including modern, industrialized countries (e.g., Butt-Thompson, 1908;McCarl Jr., 1976;Schlegel and Barry, 1979;Lewis, 1992;Shaw, 1992;Hoover, 1999;Hoover and Pollard, 2000;Gershel et al, 2003;Jeong, 2003;de Albuquerque and Eduardo, 2004;Parks and Brown, 2005;Allan and Madden, 2008). Time and again, new coalitions 1 form, persist for some time, and then invent or adopt hazing practices.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Hazing and initiations have fascinated social scientists for at least a century (e.g., Webster, 1908;Gennep, 1909;Loeb, 1929;Miller, 1932;Eliade, 1958;Muuss, 1970;Barth, 1975;Schlegel and Barry, 1979;Tiger, 1984;Herdt, 1998). The startling variety of ordeals and privations suffered by hazees includes physical assaults, scarification, sleep deprivation, servile labor, and many others.…”

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confidence: 98%

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The Evolution of Hazing: Motivational Mechanisms and the Abuse of Newcomers

Cimino

2011

J Cogn Cult

116

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Hazing -the abuse of new or prospective group members -is a widespread and puzzling feature of human social behavior, occurring in divergent cultures and across levels of technological complexity. Some past research has examined the effect of hazing on hazees, but no experimental work has been performed to examine the motivational causes of hazing. This paper has two primary objectives. First, it synthesizes a century of theory on severe initiations and extracts three primary explanatory themes. Second, it examines the dynamics of enduring human coalitions to generate an evolutionary theory of hazing. Two laboratory experiments suggest that one potential function of hazing is to reduce newcomers' ability to free ride around group entry. These results are discussed in light of two common but largely untested explanations of hazing.

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Section: A Provisional Definition Of Hazingmentioning

confidence: 98%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

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confidence: 98%

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The Evolution of Hazing: Motivational Mechanisms and the Abuse of Newcomers

Cimino

2011

J Cogn Cult

116

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“…However, cross-cultural research does not currently rely on comparisons with an undifferentiated concept of "the West." Schlegel & Barry's (1991) extensive statistical analysis of the sociocultural dimensions of adolescence in nearly 200 societies around the world represents the most comprehensive synthesis of what is known about the adolescent life stage across cultures. The most ambitious ethnographic undertaking within the cross-cultural framework is the Harvard Adolescence Project, which involves multidisciplinary investigations of the physiological and sociocultural dimensions of adolescence in seven different societies; four monographs reporting the results of the project have been published (Burbank 1988, Condon 1987, Davis & Davis 1989, Hollos & Leis 1989.…”

Section: Adolescence As a Life Stagementioning

confidence: 99%

Youth and Cultural Practice

Bucholtz

2002

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

355

142

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s Abstract The study of youth played a central role in anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century, giving rise to a still-thriving cross-cultural approach to adolescence as a life stage. Yet the emphasis on adolescence as a staging ground for integration into the adult community often obscures young people's own cultural agency or frames it solely in relation to adult concerns. By contrast, sociology has long considered youth cultures as central objects of study, whether as deviant subcultures or as class-based sites of resistance. More recently, a third approach-an anthropology of youth-has begun to take shape, sparked by the stimuli of modernity and globalization and the ambivalent engagement of youth in local contexts. This broad and interdisciplinary approach revisits questions first raised in earlier sociological and anthropological frameworks, while introducing new issues that arise under current economic, political, and cultural conditions. The anthropology of youth is characterized by its attention to the agency of young people, its concern to document not just highly visible youth cultures but the entirety of youth cultural practice, and its interest in how identities emerge in new cultural formations that creatively combine elements of global capitalism, transnationalism, and local culture.

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“…Amongst the Maasai for instance, genital cutting serves as a permanent sign of the initiate's change of status and the ability to endure pain, as suggested in the general analysis by Schlegel and Barry (1979) and La Fontaine, (1985). Thus, initiates experience -through their skin -pain, death and rebirth, after which their relationship with other initiates, age-set members and the community at large is re-defined (Esho et al, 2010;Schildkrout 2004).…”

Section: The Socio Cultural Symbolic Nexus Associated With Fgcmentioning

confidence: 99%

The socio-cultural-symbolic nexus in the perpetuation of female genital cutting: a critical review of existing discourses

Esho

Wolputte

Enzlin

2011

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Female Genital Cutting (FGC), also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Female Circumcision (FC), continues to be a prevalent practice in many parts of the world and especially in Africa. This is somewhat perplexing given the concerted efforts aimed at eradicating this practice. This article argues that the perpetuation of FGC is due to the unintended effects of marginalization experienced by individuals and groups of women as a result of the approach of some of the anti-FGC global discourses and policies put forward to eradicate the practice. This, we argue, happens when the social structure that provides such groups and individuals with a sense of identity and belonging breaks down. Therefore, the attack on what practicing communities consider to be of crucial cultural value causes a re-focus on the practice resulting in a re-formulation and re-invention of these practices in a bid to counter the feelings of alienation. FGC is thus reframed and reconstructed as a reaction against these campaigns. This article intends to investigate the socio-cultural-symbolic nexus surrounding the practice of FGC, its meaning and implications with respect to its continued existence. It draws examples mainly from communities in Kenya that practice FGM as a rite of passage into adulthood. Herein, perhaps, lies the driving force behind the practice in this contemporary age: it carries a lot of significance with respect to transformational processes, and it is seen as crucial in the representation of the body, identity and belonging. The aim of this article is not to defend FGC's continuation, but rather to explore the interplay between its changing socio-cultural dimensions as a counter-reaction to the eradication discourse and policies. In this way we will try to explore some of the factors that lay behind its perpetuation.

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Adolescent Initiation Ceremonies: A Cross-Cultural Code

Cited by 39 publications

References 0 publications

The Evolution of Hazing: Motivational Mechanisms and the Abuse of Newcomers

The Evolution of Hazing: Motivational Mechanisms and the Abuse of Newcomers

Youth and Cultural Practice

The socio-cultural-symbolic nexus in the perpetuation of female genital cutting: a critical review of existing discourses

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