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Title: | The Secret of the Men: A Fiction of Chagga Initiation and Its Relation to the Logic of Chagga Symbolism |
Author: | Moore, Sally F. |
Year: | 1976 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 46 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 357-370 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | Chaga initiation Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External links: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1159299 https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:4011-1976-046-00-000034 |
Abstract: | In the 19th century, there were Chagga chiefdoms which initiated their young man into adulthood by putting them through an elaborate series of rituals and ordeals. After circumcision they were seat to the forest for a period of seclusion and instruction. Children and young wonen were told that during this time the youth were subjected to another operation: this one to plug and stich their anuses and that full-grown men of procreative age did not defecate. In reality the closed anus was an open secret, as far as many women concerned. The article explain what the meaning is of this particular lie by showing to what other circumstances of Chagga life and thought this particular set of ideas seems logically related. Notes, ref., résumé en français. |