The River Between Lesson Plan

What does initiation entail and why is it so important to the tribe?

Initiation candidates gather and go from house to house singing and dancing the ritual songs; the eve of initiation being the biggest of all dances. Everyone, young and old, participates is the dance. Its the one night you "could sing about anything and talk of the hidden parts of men and women without feeling you had violated the otherwise strong social code that governed people's relationships..."

The morning of initiation, the candidates bathe in the cold river to numb themselves before the surgeons arrival. They are then cut and brought to gendered hospital huts. While the initiates are...