Story by Bre Cruickshank
Illustration by Heather Darrough
Across the globe, various cultures revere coming of age ceremonies as important markers in an individual’s journey from boyhood to manhood. The traditions challenge a participant to overcome fear and accept a new identity as a full member of society. From the hills of Papua New Guinea to the depths of the Amazon, these coming of age ceremonies test a boy’s emotional and mental limits, marking the end of childhood and the start of life as an empowered adult.
Falling With Grace
For the residents of Pentecost Island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, bungee jumping just isn’t thrilling enough. Here, men are encouraged to participate in land diving, a tradition that dates back 15 centuries and could easily qualify as an extreme sport. In the ceremony, a man scales a wooden tower more than 100 feet tall. At the top, vines are tied to his ankles before he propels himself off, hoping to prove his courage and masculinity by braving the jump.
Young men try to stop with their shoulders close to the ground, but the jumps are incredibly hard to calculate and can result in serious injury or even death. Boys as young as five participate in the tradition, starting out with low jumps before working their way up to daring new heights.
Residents of the island value the tradition of land diving for two main reasons. First, the islanders believe it offers a tribute to gods who will ensure a bountiful harvest if the jumps go well. Second, land diving allows males to leave behind the shackles of boyhood once they finally take the plunge.
Hands On Fire
The Satere-Mawe tribe shares the dense, dangerous Amazon Rainforest with the bullet ant, which has a sting so painful that the renowned Schmidt Sting Pain Index rates it the most agonizing in the insect world. The ant plays a key role in the Satere-Mawe coming of age ceremony; young men wear woven gloves with insides completely covered by the notorious insect.
In order to prepare the gloves, tribesmen douse bullet ants in an herbal mixture that temporarily knocks the insects out and impairs their powerful stingers. While docile, the ants are stuck into the gloves one-by-one. Young men then place their hands inside and wait.
Once awakened, the vengeful ants are more than ready to retaliate for their earlier incapacitation. Participants wear the gloves for a total of ten minutes. The furious ants sting the men until their hands are so swollen and tortured that they become temporarily paralyzed. Often, the men convulse from the pain, which intensifies once the gloves are off and lasts for approximately 24 hours.
The ritual, however, doesn’t end there. The participants, determined to be recognized as adults, sometimes perform the ceremony as many as 20 more times. “If you live your life without suffering anything or without any kind of effort it won’t be worth anything to you,” a Satere-Mawe chief told National Geographic reporters.
The Lone Man
The Sambia tribe lives in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. When boys turn seven, they leave their mothers to live among the other males of the tribe. The Sambia maintain a gender separation so rigorous that men and women don’t even use the same walking paths in the village.
To complete the transition, young men partake in various traditions involving body modification and ritual homosexuality. To begin, the boys participate in a series of cleansing ceremonies intended to decontaminate their bodies from the influence of their mothers, which the Sambia believe to be impure. In a sacred creek, they struggle to maintain composure as elders shove sharp reeds up their nostrils, force several feet of cane down their throats, and stab their tender tongues with razor-sharp arrows until blood freely flows into the water below.
Another significant part of the tradition involves fellatio, which initiates perform on senior tribe members in order to consume what the villagers refer to as a man’s “milk,” which is believed to enrich masculinity and improve virility.
One initiate explained the significance of the ritual to National Geographic: “I am born here to be a man to protect my family, tribe, and my people. The most important thing is to go through the initiation, to realize my role as a man in my community.”
 
A Scarring Experience
Along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, men partake in a coming of age tradition that involves scarification intended to mimic their fierce neighbor: the crocodile. First, the participants (no specific age is set for the ritual) spend six weeks in a hut the tribe refers to as the “spirit house.” The isolation provides the men time to consider the physical and emotional challenges of the upcoming ceremony.
During the ritual, uncles hold down their nephews as they’re sliced by razors as many as 100 times. The cuts are deep, carving out enough skin to create thick scars. After the slicing stops, the scars are intentionally irritated with smoke so they become raised enough to resemble the scaly skin of the crocodile. For two weeks, the men carefully cleanse their wounds and prepare to be honored by their community.
Sometimes, as one participant told visiting filmmakers, men die during the ritual. Still, he said the resulting scars “tell everyone to recognize us as initiated men.” His uncle added, “In order to become a man, he must experience pain for he will remember it later on and he will be able to endure whatever troubles he faces in the future.”
 
 

Gallery • 5 Photos

Growing Pains