INITIATION. - From Lat. in-eo (hence initium, initiare) "to enter within," here in the sacral sense of being admitted among the participants of a given religious group. Initiation is a rite that effects and consecrates the passage of an individual (or of a group) from one condition of life to another and specifically from the profane world to the sacred one.
In primitive human groups, the rites that introduce the young person into the society of adults are of great importance. For this subject, see below.
I. IN THE RELIGIONS OF CULTURE
The initiatory rites, which religiously introduce one to a new condition of life, involve three moments: of separation of the initiate from the world to which he has until then belonged, during which he is instructed in the principles and duties proper to the association; of testing, in which the initiate is subjected to trials, often painful, which must demonstrate his capacity for endurance, in accordance with the obligations and conditions of the new life to which he aspires; of aggregation, which gives the initiate, through a ceremonial, often complicated, the investiture as a member of the new society, and the right to bear its distinctive emblem.
In primitive groups the i. is the same for all the men of the clan, but when this expands into a tribe, through the acquisition of territories and the aggregation of extraneous elements, the initiatory rites become the privilege of the elders, who avail themselves of them to exercise a directive action over the men of the group.
Thus arise the secret societies, which multiply according to the specific objectives they pursue and the mystic-magical capacities of which they consider themselves the depositaries. These secret societies have as their patron a divine or spirit Power to which the members assimilate themselves through a ceremony that signifies the death of the old man and his resurrection, thanks to the acquisition of a new soul that makes him a brother to the other members of the society, making him a participant in their mystic-magical capacities of dominion over things and over men.
For initiation into the mysteries, v. MISTERI. For Christian initiation, v. BATTERMO. Nicola Turchi
II. INITIATION OF YOUTH IN PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
In several populations that still belong to the original cultures, around the period of puberty, boys and girls, before entering affectively into the society, must undergo an i., which has the purpose of instilling solely the observance of the moral precepts that constitute the educational ideal of these populations. The observance of these precepts is also a religious duty: some populations (e.g., the Yamana of Tierra del Fuego, South America) expressly teach the initiates that "Watauineua (the Supreme Being), who sees everything exactly, desires the observance of these laws" and strikes with premature death the transgressor or his loved ones. Other populations, about which we are less informed, are not so explicit; nevertheless the moral and religious character of their i. emerges from the whole complex of the ceremonies. Another characteristic of these i. consists in the fact that the initiates are subject to mortifications and penances, such as fasts, silences, little rest, but not to painful practices.
The Andamanese boys and girls, between the ages of eleven and thirteen, must abstain from particularly favored foods such as honey, turtle meat and wild boar meat, and this prohibition lasts until they have passed through the i., which are neither secret nor reserved to a single part of the tribe: the women also participate in the i. of the boys and the men in those of the girls. During these ceremonies a food from which the candidate must abstain is presented to him. He merely looks at it; the chief pours a few drops of pork fat over him and anoints him with butter. The initiates must also remain silent for several days. Finally the relatives and friends adorn the youths and invite them to dance, which they do until exhaustion. The girls, on these occasions, receive the name of a flower then blooming and bear this name until they have become mothers. The ceremony as a whole lasts several days, then the first food prohibition ceases. The following year the feast is repeated, at the end of which another prohibition ceases.
The Yamana boys and girls, having reached the period of puberty, are subjected to i. "which are a systematic course of education" (Koppers). Experienced and respected elders impart to the youths the essential duties, which can be summarized thus: "Respect and help the old, do not report the gossip you hear, distribute the spoils of the hunt not only to friends but also to strangers, do not kill, do not steal and do not do harm, respect the wives of others, help everyone, be industrious. If you find a lost child, bring him back to his family even if he were the son of an enemy of yours, because the child is not guilty of your enmity."
Substantially the same are the precepts for the girls. To them it is repeated in a special way that they must rise early and be helpful to the elders. These recommend to the girls modesty when they walk (see the complete list of precepts in Koppers, Gusinde and Boccassino).
The i. of the Australian populations, including those that still belong to the most archaic cultural stratum, are much more complex, and the women can participate only in a part of the ceremonies. In this exclusion and in several rites the influences of totemism are clear, a cultural cycle in which the social position of woman is much weakened compared with that which she had in the original cultures.
The chief of the Kurnai (New South Wales, Australia), at the end of the ceremonies, narrates with great seriousness the ancient story of the tribe, in which mythology and religion are interwoven. Then he sets forth to the youths the moral laws that they must observe: "Obey your parents, divide what you have with your friends and live in peace with them, have no relations with girls or with married women, abstain from certain foods until the elders give you permission to eat them." All the circumstances that precede and accompany the enunciation of these precepts — ceremonies and exhausting dances for several days, the silence of the night, the solitude of the forest, the starry sky, the call of the Supreme Being — are ordered in such a way as to leave the deepest impression on the youths (W. Schmidt).
Even more complex are the i. of the Yuin (New South Wales, Australia), who belong to the culture of the boomerang (v. ETNOLOGIA, VII, 4). In these ceremonies there already appears the avulsion of a tooth, performed with a wooden chisel, which the initiate must endure without complaining, if he does not wish to be mocked for his whole life. The initiate is proud of this avulsion because he has given proof of courage, but perhaps even more because he has received a mark that distinguishes him also externally from the non-initiated and makes him a man in the full sense of the word, with all the rights to the government of the tribe. In the initiations of the Yuin the division of the tribe into two categories is already evident: initiated (men) and non-initiated (children, youths, women). This division is a characteristic of totemism. But, notwithstanding these non-original elements, in the initiations of the Yuin the authority of the Supreme Being is still strong: the initiates are expressly warned that he sees everything from heaven and punishes transgressors.
In the i. of the Kamilaroi (New South Wales, Australia) the elders teach the youths that in the division of the spoils the old, the sick and large families must have preference.
The i. demonstrate that: 1) even primitive populations have a definite ideal of education which they seek to impress upon the youths; 2) for a complete social education the authority of the parents is not enough, but that of the social group is also needed, which in the original cultures is barely at its beginnings and not in contrast with the family; 3) the original cultures give the same importance to the education of boys and of girls; 4) the mortifications (fasts, silence, scanty rest) performed during these ceremonies prove the importance that these indigenous peoples give to self-mastery; 5) the youths, yielding to the elders the preferred foods, demonstrate that they are convinced of the necessity of altruism and of assistance extended to all members of the tribe (see the examples of altruism reported by W. Schmidt and W. Koppers in Völker und Kulturen, Regensburg 1924, p. 185 ff.); 6) morality has a religious foundation: the references to the Supreme Being who demands the observance of his commandments and punishes transgressors prove it. The sanction is sometimes limited to this life and consists in the death of the guilty party or of his loved ones or in illnesses, sometimes it is extended also to the other life. The good effect of the i. is not erased for one's whole life, as attest the scholars who have observed these populations on the spot.
In the more recent cultures the i. are no longer common to boys and girls and largely lose their original essentially educational task; indeed they are often associated with obscene sexual motives. In the matriarchate only the girls receive from the mother a kind of i. when they reach the moment of their first menstruation.
In totemism only the youths are still initiated and subjected to painful practices such as the avulsion of a tooth, circumcision, performed with a sharp lithic flake or one retouched at the edges, and subincision, with a pointed stone knife. - See plate CXXIV.
The study of primitive i. has clarified several archaic aspects of the Greek mysteries.
Bibliography30 works
Renato Boccassino