initiation

initiation the transition and attendant ceremonies, such as ordeals and rites, involved in passing from one state or status to another, often from childhood to adulthood. It was among the most important social institutions of early humans. The ordeal measures the initiate's worthiness to enter the new status. Initiation may mean the cessation of contact with those who have not been initiated. Seclusion, mutilation, symbolic representation of death and resurrection, the display of sacred objects, special instruction, and restrictions on the initiate are frequent attributes of the ceremonies. Many early societies had puberty initiations. Their purpose was to induct the young person both into the full status of an adult and into the religion of the group.

initiation, initiation rites Rituals associated with the passage from childhood to adulthood, from one age-set to another, or the entry into membership of secret societies. Aspects of initiation influenced van Gennep's study of rites of passage. Rituals for the change of status from childhood to adulthood often involve physical change such as circumcision. In other ways the initiate has to undergo pain and humiliation. Rites associated with girls and women often affirm male control of reproductive powers.

Initiation. The (usually ritual) transfer of a person into a new state, and thus common in religions—either to bring a person into a new religious community, or to make transfers of status within such communities. Examples are circumcision in Judaism, baptism and confirmation in Christianity, bayʿat (‘pact’) when a Sūfī novice joins an order, upanayana among twice-born Hindus, abhiṣeka in Buddhism, dbang.bskur in Tibet (see ABHIṢEKA), dīkṣa in all Indian religions, but of especial importance among Jains, khaṇḍe-dī-pāhul among Sikhs.