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Initiation
and marriage Initiation consisted of many ceremonies that taught
people the fundamentals of their culture. When a girl reached
puberty she was taken away by a group of older women to be initiated.
The women who attended these ceremonies held high status in
society as they possessed the most knowledge. These women were
not bound by restrictions or taboos like
the younger women . Boys began their first stages of initiation
as they entered manhood in a ceremony called 'Vardnapa.' |
At
the start of the ceremony both men and women were allowed to be present
but as the ceremony progressed the women were excluded. As the boy
grew older he would take on a mentor which was usually the boy's uncle.
This was apparently a difficult time for both the boy and mentor as
several Dreaming stories speak of conflict between the two over taboos.
The boy was allowed to marry if he had passed all the tests.
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