Rights+of+Passage

** The rites of passage in the nuer culture are: puberty, marriage, and death. **
=== ** Amongst the Nuer, puberty is viewed as the transition from childhood to adulthood. For the females, this stage in life is set off by the first sighting of menstrual blood. Nuer boys on the other hand until their father gives consent for them to undergo initiation. The ceremony will commence after 5 to 15 boys are selected to take part in the manhood ritual. Their heads are shave and annointed. Each boy is given six cuts across the forehead. ** ** The next transition of passage is marriage. This takes place after after courtship. In order for this ritual to be carried out, the parents on both sides must agree. Then, if agreed upon, the bride's parent must arrange a brides's wealth, which would be a number of the spouse's family's cattle in exchange for the bride's courtship. A marriage is usually completed and considered stable by the amount of children the bride bears with her spouse. A marriage is finalized with the conceiving of two children, after three the marriage is considered "tied". ** ** The final stage of the passage or rites is death. When a member of the Nuer settlement dies. The death is followed by the mourning of the person's kin, for a few months. During this period of time relatives tend not to wear ornaments. a ceremony is held where cattle is killed to honor the dead and to provide food for a feast. Both the men and women shave their heads and ornament are worn again. ** By. Devin Pastrana  Sources: http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/retrieve.do?contentSet=EBKS&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C4%29Nuer%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=Relevance&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T001&prodId=GVRL&searchId=R1&currentPosition=2&userGroupName=gett36723&docId=CX1839300082&docType=EBKS&contentSet=EBKS  === []