The psychology of the adolescent / by Leta S. Hollingworth.

  • Leta Stetter Hollingworth
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of the adolescent / by Leta S. Hollingworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/196 (page 30)
    with a cKisel and club, the boy being expected to demonstrate manhood by suffering without manifest emotion. According to an observer, one boy whose tooth was not dislodged until after seven blows, “could not have shown less feeling had he been a block of wood.” At initiation in the Kaiabara tribe, old men instructed the young in regard to marriage laws, the boundaries of their coun¬ try, and suitable food. In modern schools we should call this instruction in law, geography and nutrition. The boys stood in one row, the girls in another, while an old man walked be¬ tween the rows asking the boys to choose which of the ;girls each would have for a wi fe. If a boy s choice fell upon a girl from a clan into which the tribal laws would not permit marriage, he was punished. If he selected a partner in accordance with tribal rules, he was praised. Among certain tribes a novice was obliged to prove that he could hunt by catching a small animal, and carrying it alive in a bag around his neck during the initiation. This act con¬ vinced the old men that the youth had skill as a hunter and was ready to marry. In some initiation rites the surrender of the boys by their mothers is dramatically represented. At certain ceremonies in New South Wales, after preliminary performances lasting three days, one morning after sunrise all the people^men, women, and children^assembled adjacent to a large circle which had pre¬ viously been marked out on the ground. The men formed into a group and danced in front of the women and children. The mothers of those to be initiated stood in the front row of women during the dance, and at its conclusion “they commanded the novices to enter the circle, thus relinquishing their authority over them. This signified that the family, which hitherto had re¬ tained possession of the youths, now surrendered them to the headmen of the tribes.” Among certain tribes of Queensland, when the time for initia¬ tion approaches, the novice, who has been elaborately decorated with waist-belt and head-dress, is brought before his parents and friends. “When the women first gaze upon the lad thus ornamented, they all begin to cry^; and so do his immediate