group differentiation; excluding, of course, the case where membership
in a group is not synonymous with birth. When Schurtz, therefore,
reconstructs the evolution of initiation, and connects the initiation
into a society with that at puberty, he must have been guided by some
more fundamental facts than that of the presence of initiation. The
postulation of a genetic relationship between the two initiations lay
really in the fact that he detected in the form of initiation into
the society certain “symptoms” which he regarded as being primarily
associated with puberty initiation. These symptoms were the presence of
“tests” as essential for admission into a society; and group-initiation
or the initiation of a number of youths at the same time. That he was
thinking of tests in the most general way, can be seen by the following
statement. “Das Austeilen von Schlägen ... im Duk-Duk hängt wohl mit
den Mutproben der Knabenweihe zusammen.”[29] It is hardly necessary to
insist that the test concept used in this generalized manner is found
associated with the ordinary forms of eligibility; so that, wherever
the idea of eligibility is associated with a social or ceremonial
group, there it will be natural to find tests. There is no need of
giving any examples: they must occur to every one. The test feature
must consequently be considered so general a cultural possession that
its association with diverse cultural phenomena is quite natural, and
its significance will in each case depend upon specific conditions.
We cannot, therefore, predicate any general significance for the
association of the test feature in specific cultural complexes.
Schurtz’s second symptom comes out strongly in his discussion of
the Ruk-Ruk Society of Northern Bougainville.[30] We have here, he
says, a remarkable connecting link between simple men’s associations
(_Männerbünde_), firmly established by puberty rites and secret
societies. He arrives at this conclusion, because he finds it customary
there to have a group of youths initiated into the society at the same
time. Here both the youth of the novices and the group initiation are
emphasized as being symptomatic of a development from former men’s
associations (_Männerbünde_).
It must, however, be remembered, as we have said before, that a man
becomes socially active at about the age of puberty, and that his
social activity will naturally take those channels customary in a
given tribe. The fact that a youth enters a society like the Ruk-Ruk,
to which most members of the tribe belong, should not excite wonder.
As a matter of fact, we should find it necessary to explain why he
did not join. His failure to become a member would most certainly be
associated, in such a case, with a low social status. What is to be
emphasized here is not the youth of the novices, but the intellectual
development occurring at that age. This comes out clearly in the case
of the Duk-Duk, where the parents generally purchase membership for
their children immediately after birth. Young children behave like
regularly initiated members, but they only become active members at the
age of sixteen. Similarly in the Winnebago Medicine Dance individuals
may be initiated in early childhood, but it is at a much later period
that they possess the powers of adult members. As a matter of fact,
admission depends upon so large a number of factors in different
societies, that it would be possible to draw up a table that would
include all ages from birth to old age.
In the same way the initiation of a group of individuals at one time
depends upon too large a number of factors to permit any single
interpretation. The burden of proof rests with Schurtz to show that the
presence of a specific test connects the Ruk-Ruk Society with puberty
rites, and that the presence of a group initiation in the Duk-Duk
connects that society with the men’s associations.
Perhaps a few examples might bring out more clearly the different kinds
of initiation.
In the Ruk-Ruk Society the novices retire to the woods, work for their
sponsors, lay out their plantations, etc. They are also supposed
to converse with spirits.[31] Similar conditions are found in the
Matambala Society of the Island of Florida.[32] This retirement to
the woods and to a holy precinct, and consequent re-appearance, are
characteristic of a large number of initiations. The work the novice
performs for his sponsor must also be regarded as a characteristic of
this area. The tests of the novice have been spoken of before. They
are, as might be expected, of the most diverse kind. In Fiji, for
instance, a ceremonial attack upon the novices occurs, which is said to
symbolize their death.[33]
In Africa we find many of the characteristics noted above. In the
Purrah the novices retire to a holy precinct, and are said to
endure extreme hardship. Only warriors thirty years of age can be
initiated.[34] In the Mumbo-Djumbo only youths older than sixteen are
admitted.[35] The other conditions are similar to those of the Purrah.
In the Simo organization novices were circumcized and lived seven years
in the woods.[36] In the Mwetyi Society, in addition to probations, the
youths adopt a taboo of certain foods or drinks, to which they remain
faithful ever after.[37] In the Ndembo Society novices are shot by a
rattle, and fall down as if dead. They are then carried away to some
holy precinct, where often as many as from twenty to fifty individuals
remain at the same time. At this place they stay sometimes as long as
three years. Their bodies are supposed to disintegrate during this
time. When they are supposed to return, the shaman gathers their bones
and restores them to life. On the return to their villages, they behave
like unknown children, fail to recognize their relatives, to understand
their own language, etc.[38] In the Nkimba similar conditions are
found.[39]
The variability of the method and concept of initiation is thus
seen to be enormous. It might be interesting in this connection to
point out how certain ideas will cluster around initiation in one
large geographical area, and how the same ideas will cluster around
a different cultural complex in another large geographical area.
For instance, in the South Seas and in Africa, initiation is found
generally associated with tests or probations; whereas in North America
tests are not associated with initiation into the society, but with the
obtaining of visions at the age of puberty.
2. _Degrees._—To Schurtz, degrees are symptomatic of age classes.
Wherever he finds them in societies, and wherever they seem to be
correlated with certain ages, he concludes that they are vestiges of
former age groups. However, he seems to have overlooked one fact,—that
the same social and individual forces that would tend toward the
formation of societies would necessarily tend toward the development
of distinctions within them. It will depend entirely upon the nature
of the people and the individual history of the organization, in
what manner these distinctions will be emphasized. One of the
possible methods of emphasizing them is marking off those with common
possessions in some definite manner. Here, again, much will depend upon
the kind of group into which the individual is initiated. If, when
he enters the society, he is initiated into all that pertains to it,
gradations will not be likely to arise. Generally, however, there is
certainly a marked tendency for some sort of gradation, be it due to
length of membership, insistence upon separate payments, unwillingness
of the older members to impart all to a new member who may withal be
quite young, a desire to impart piecemeal in order to enhance the value
of the teachings, etc. Whether these possible lines of cleavage will
associate themselves with definite markings or rites, is a question
of individual cultural development. They may or they may not. In
Melanesia, for instance, they did not.
In the Ruku-Ruku[40] of the Fiji Islanders we find three
gradations,—those of uninitiated youths, grown-up men, and old men.
In the Purrah[41] there were two gradations, consisting respectively
of those over thirty and of those over fifty years. In the Egbo[42]
Society there are eleven degrees, into which membership may be
purchased one after the other in an ascending scale. In Old Calabar[43]
there are five classes.
In the Purrah we are dealing with an exceedingly intricate complex,
in which military and judicial functions are quite prominent. The age
factor seems secondary and artificial. In the Egbo there is no age
factor at all. In the Ruku-Ruku an age factor exists. Owing to the
social value of the Ruku-Ruku, all individuals seem to be potential
members at birth. At the same time, the oldest members always have
specific functions to perform. In this way two groups are formed.
Those who do not belong to these two groups belong to the third group.
All that can be said here is, that a society has utilized a rough
age factor for specific purposes. That in reality the entire tribe
is divided into three divisions, is due to the fact that all the
members of the tribe are members of the society. This is therefore
not a phenomenon that has any general significance in the evolution
of society, but is purely and simply a phenomenon of certain secret
societies. The threefold division is not due to a persistence of a
former threefold division of the tribe, but grew out of the needs of
a specific society. The same remarks hold for the twofold division
of members in the Purrah. Similarly the four and eight degrees found
among the Ojibwa Midewiwin are due to a development within the
society. To-day practically all the members of the tribe belong to the
Midewiwin, and the tribe may be said to be divided into four divisions.
(However, in this case the main element, that of the association of a
certain age with a certain degree, does not exist, because there is no
fixed age at which a man buys admission into the higher degrees.)
It will consequently be necessary to determine the significance of
degrees in each particular case before any general significance can be
attached to them.
3. _Exclusion of Women._—The admission of women into a society is,
according to Schurtz, a secondary feature. This followed directly from
his negative position with regard to women’s _Geselligkeitstrieb_,
and from his assumption that societies were merely transformed
men’s associations, which in turn were transformed age groups. The
question of the _Geselligkeitstrieb_ of women hardly lends itself
to any accurate discussion, as, generally speaking, women have not
been surrounded by those conditions which played an important part in
developing that trait among men. In our own civilization, where men and
women are to a certain extent subjected to the same conditions, a large
number of women societies has developed, and large numbers of women
have been admitted into men’s societies. Among us, this admission of
women is due to the fact that they are now in the same industries that
men are. However, there are manifold factors which can and do bring
about the admission of women into men’s societies or their exclusion
therefrom. The nature of some societies may exclude men, just as it may
exclude women. A soldiers’ society will exclude women, because women
are not soldiers. Similarly a sewing society will probably exclude
men. The exclusion of women will therefore depend upon the specific
functions of a society; but the right of women to participate in
certain activities will again depend upon the manner in which each
specific culture area separated the spheres of action of men and women.
The possibility of infinite variation must force upon us the conclusion
that we can only begin to investigate the reasons for the exclusion or
admittance of women when we have a clear understanding of the ideas
each tribe possesses with regard to the specific functions of the men
and women. This determination is in a large number of cases utterly
impossible, because we are in no position to know whether the reasons
now given are historically the true ones. If, for instance, in a men’s
college fraternity women are debarred on the ground that the fraternity
is interested in fencing, card-playing, etc., which are occupations of
men, historically this is not the true reason. Originally fraternities
were merely social gatherings of individuals who attended a college.
There were no women students to admit. To-day, when women attend the
colleges, wherever new fraternities arise, women are admitted. It is
thus apparent, that, in the absence of historical evidence, we must be
extremely careful in interpreting the reason for this exclusion.
In Melanesia, for example, women are entirely excluded from the
societies. However, in Melanesia, societies are associated with a
multitude of religious and social functions in which women are not
permitted to participate. In other words, the Melanesians draw the line
of demarcation between the activities of men and women along these
lines. If, for instance, in the New Hebrides, women have nothing to do
with the funeral and mortuary rites, and a secret society is intimately
connected with such rites, then we ought not to be surprised that women
are not admitted into the society. It seems to me, therefore, that we
should make much better progress in our study of this phenomenon in
Melanesia and in Polynesia, if we were first to examine whether either
the conceptions of the tribe, or the nature of the specific society, or
the cultural elements with which it was associated, debarred women from
membership.
A few examples from Africa will emphasize this point even more
forcibly, and at the same time indicate along what lines the respective
spheres of men’s and women’s actions are drawn there. In the Purrah
Society, women are excluded. The society has general war and judicial
functions which do not come within the domain of women, according to
the ideas of the tribe. In the Attonga Society[44] of Senegambia, only
women are admitted, and the society is associated with mortuary rites.
In the Dschengu we have another women society connected here with the
cult of some water deity.[45] In the region around the mouth of the
Ogowe there are a number of powerful women societies associated with
various elements.[46]
If we now proceed to Schurtz’s contention, that women societies are
merely imitations of men’s societies, we shall see that, as a general
statement, this is as unjustified as is his interpretation that the
admission of women into societies is a secondary feature. That it
is true in a number of cases, is unquestioned. However, when, as in
Africa, we see a very strong tendency for the formation of societies,
and see at the same time a very large number of women societies, it
seems far more justifiable to assume that the women societies are
formed in response to the same tendencies as those of men. To judge
from parallels in other parts of the world, it is extremely likely that
women will form societies wherever men show a strong tendency to do so.
A number of factors may, however, interfere with a development of such
societies. For instance, it is quite plausible that where, as among the
Melanesians, a strong society-forming tendency existed, and women did
not participate in it, some strong reason existed which might perhaps
be ascribed to the fact that women do not there participate in those
rites that are almost universally associated with societies.
In North America there are numerous examples of women belonging to
men’s societies. A cursory examination will bring out what were the
possible factors at work there. In the Objibwa-Menominee Midewiwin,
women are admitted. Now, in the Ojibwa-Menominee culture, women may
become shamans as well as men, and the society based on shamans will
naturally include both sexes. If there are fewer women than men, this
is because fewer women become shamans. In the Winnebago Medicine Dance,
wealth and certain requirements possessed by both men and women are the
only essentials for admission; and both sexes can accordingly become
members. In the present Sore-Eye Dance, women are admitted. Formerly
the same society, known as the Night Dance, excluded women. The
reason is very simple. Formerly, supernatural communication with the
night spirits was essential for membership, and owing to the specific
associations attached to these night spirits, women never obtained
visions from them. When subsequently it was no more essential to have
had a vision, and membership could be purchased by any one, women were
admitted. Among the Blackfoot, women are part members of the religious
society, because, according to Blackfoot ideas of property, the former
have a part in the medicine-bundle of the man. The possession of the
medicine-bundle is necessary for admission into the society.[47] It is
thus apparent that the explanation for the exclusion of women from a
society must lie in a large number of factors, not the least important
of which is the nature of the specific ideas of property and the
respective spheres of activity of men and women.
4. _Functions of the Society._—Our analysis of the five ceremonies
has clearly established the differences in the functions of the
societies. To Schurtz these differences were due to developments from
one historically primary function. His line of argument is a direct
consequence of his assumption that secret societies have developed from
the men’s associations.
If we glance at the West African, the Melanesian, the Polynesian,
North American, and our own societies, we see that their functions are
legion. Now, it can be demonstrated that where the whole or a large
part of the tribe is included in a society, that society will possess
many of the functions of the tribe, because individuals are primarily
carriers of their culture, and secondarily members of a society; or,
it might be better said that these two functions of an individual are
so inextricably connected that they cannot be thought of apart. It
can also be demonstrated that specific societies have associated with
them a variety of functions. In each case we are dealing with the
same phenomenon. The number of possible combinations is practically
infinite. It is, however, a suggestive fact that certain functions of a
society are distributed over large areas. In Melanesia, for instance,
the most constant functions of societies seem to be those connected
with mortuary rites and ancestor worship. In Africa, again, they are
primarily judicial and administrative. In the case of our five North
American ceremonies, they are religious and magical. For the latter our
explanation lay in assuming that we were dealing there with a common
cultural background. The same explanation holds true for Melanesia and
Africa. In other words, societies, like all other social units in which
an individual takes part, must necessarily associate themselves with
the cultural background in which they are set.
5. _Conclusion._—The study we have undertaken can only indirectly be
considered an examination of Schurtz’s theories. What we have attempted
is the analysis of a number of ceremonies, in order to discover what
tendencies were operative in their growth. These examples, combined
with others taken from the South Seas and Africa, have demonstrated
clearly that there exist in the world certain general ideas that
may associate themselves with any type of social and ceremonial
organization. Ceremonies in origin historically distinct may thus come
to possess general and often specific resemblances. It is consequently
of extreme importance, in any scheme of social reconstruction, to
determine first whether the common elements in the ethnological data
compared are not due to such a convergent evolution.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The description of the ritual is based on material collected by me,
and now in the possession of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The full
description will appear as a memoir of the Bureau.
[2] X’okê′ means literally “root” or “ancestor.” “Ancestor-host” will
be used as its equivalent.
[3] This word means literally “he who puts himself in the place to
benefit his relatives.” The reference is to the Rabbit, who, at the
first performance of the ceremony, acted as host and initiated his
relatives; i. e., the human beings.
[4] The speeches are not actually rehearsals of speeches to be
delivered during the ceremony proper, but they refer to the purpose of
the Medicine Dance much in the same way as do some of the speeches in
the ceremony proper. A large number of miscellaneous myths are likewise
related.
[5] This has been contradicted by some of my informants, who claim
that only the East and North Bands have representatives at the brush
ceremony.
[6] _Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, vol. vii, p.
188, diagram.
[7] _Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, vol. vii, pp.
245, 255–274.
[8] _Ibid._, p. 257.
[9] _Ibid._, pp. 167–181.
[10] _Ibid._, p. 168.
[11] _Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, vol. xiv, p.
69.
[12] Compare diagram, _ibid._, p. 75.
[13] _Ibid._, p. 75.
[14] Heinrich Schurtz, _Altersklassen und Männerbünde_, 1902; cf.
especially pp. 1–82.
[15] Wherever the phrase “instinct for association” is used, it is an
attempt to render the German _Geselligkeitstrieb_.
[16] S. R. Riggs, Dakota Grammar and Texts.
[17] Hoffman, in _Annual Report of Bureau of American Ethnology_, vol.
vii.
[18] _Ibid._, vol. xiv.
[19] Boas, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the
Kwakiutl Indians (_Annual Report of the U. S. National Museum for
1895_, p. 485).
[20] Migis is the Ojibwa term for the shell used in the Midewiwin. It
is employed here as a convenient term to designate the objects used by
the Winnebago and Omaha in shooting.
[21] Alanson Skinner (MS.).
[22] Frances Densmore, “Chippewa Music” (_Bureau of American
Ethnology_, Bulletin 45). Washington, Government, 1910.
[23] _Annual Archaeological Report, 1905_ (Report of Minister of
Education, Ontario), p. 146.
[24] _Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (1905–06),
vol. xxvii.
[25] _Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (1905–06),
vol. xxvii.
[26] In the Cheyenne Medicine Arrow Society a similar association
occurs.
[27] Miss Fletcher, in _Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, vol.
xxvii.
[28] Van Gennep, in a very interesting chapter on “Initiatory Rites”
(Chapter VI of his _Les Rites de Passage_), has divided puberty into
two divisions,—_puberté physique_ and _puberté sociale_,—and has shown
that the age variations of both are considerable. He insists that many
writers have considerably obscured the points at issue by confusing
the two. Van Gennep believes that the _puberté physique_ and _puberté
sociale_ rarely fall together. It seems to me that this is not entirely
borne out by the facts of the case; for it must be remembered that,
accompanying the physiological changes at puberty, there are mental
changes which in many cases permit an individual to become of active
social importance; and while I think that it is this social activity
that is emphasized by the initiatory rites, nevertheless the fact must
not be overlooked that this social activity often coincides with the
physiological puberty. We must, of course, not identify physiological
puberty with any too definite a time, but allow for considerable
fluctuations.
[29] Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, p. 376.
[30] _Ibid._, p. 379.
[31] Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, pp. 378 ff.
[32] _Ibid._, p. 379.
[33] _Ibid._, pp. 386 ff.
[34] _Ibid._, pp. 410–413.
[35] _Ibid._, pp. 413–415.
[36] _Ibid._, p. 415.
[37] _Ibid._, pp. 430 ff.
[38] _Ibid._, pp. 433–435.
[39] _Ibid._, pp. 435–437.
[40] Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, p. 386.
[41] _Ibid._, p. 410.
[42] _Ibid._, p. 420.
[43] _Ibid._, p. 422.
[44] Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, p. 416.
[45] _Ibid._, p. 426.
[46] Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbünde, p. 429.
[47] Oral communication of Dr. Wissler.
Transcriber’s Notes:
- Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
- Blank pages have been removed.
- In the section on types of ritual, (8) appears out of order, as in
the original.