Urara Gunji
Culture Essay
English/ Humanities 6-2
March 23, 2016
Culture Task
My task in the religion group was “What are the rites of passage of our tribe?
What ceremonies/ activities occur when people reach a certain age?” There are several
rites of passages when the people of Tuka become a certain age.
The first rite of passage happens when they are six days old. On their sixth day of
birth, his or her family and relatives go to one of the religious temple and ask the priest
for the name. Their parents say what they want their child to be like and the priest gives
the name. For example, if their parents want him/her to become a smart person, the priest
would give him/her a name that is related to the word ‘smart’.
The reason that I chose that it’s six days after they are born is that because we
decided that the number system is based on six and our special number is six. Also our
calendar is based on six. After their name is chosen, they receive a special small piece of
wood since we only have a little bit of wood that has their name carved on. This
represents that they are official citizen of the Tuka tribe. Also the carving can be used
when they want evidence that they are one of the Tuka tribe.
The second one in their life is when boys reach the age of thirteen, they have their first
hunting. When the boy is able to kill his first pray, he will officially become a man. For
girls, they get a bracelet made out of the mane of a lion to represent that they became a
woman. The lion is very sacred so they only get to get the lion’s mane once in their life
when they become thirteen years old. I chose to make this happen because in other tribes
in Africa, there is a rite of passage that when boys become their certain age, they will
officially become men by hunting dangerous animals and being strong.
In weddings, the couple celebrates it in one of the temples with their relatives.
The couples pray to each god and especially to the love god so that their love would last
forever. They also pray to the hate god because they don’t want the hate god’s spirit
won’t come into them to make troubles. Also the father of the bride gives a speech that he
will. Give away his daughter to the groom and to admit that now they are completely
different people in different families.
When people die, they have a funeral. They bring the dead body inside the temple
and the priest goes in front of all of the gods and prays for the dead person’s afterlife.
After this ceremony, they bring the dead body to a special place to bury them. They don’t
burn it since there is not much things that they can use to burn like trees. When they bury
it, they bury him/her with only one of their special possessions, which is most likely to be
like the wood with their name carved on. After six days that they buried, the family goes
back to the grave and gives things that he/ she liked and things that they need for their
afterlife.
I got this idea from the Egyptians because when people of Egyptians die, they
don’t burn them and they keep them with their possessions for their afterlife.
In our tribe, our rites of passages depend on our natural resources like we can only
use trees a little bit so we only use trees for special things like six days after they are born.
References
El Sebou’ - Egyptian birth ritual. (2012). Retrieved March 11, 2012, from http://www.der.org/
films/el-sebou-egyptian-birth-ritual.html
15 Rites of passage from around the world. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2012, from
http://livingitfine.blogspot.com/2009/07/15-rites-of-passage-from-around-world.html
Lion’s mane. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.caribbeangardens.com/press/images/nz-lionmane.jpg