#11 of the 25 crazy initiation rites?!

In the Nigerian delta region, there are waterways all over the place. So there many local legends and spiritual beliefs full of water spirits. In the Okrika tribe of this area believe that the water spirits form romantic relationships with the women of the tribe as children. Through the Iria ceremony this young woman must end this relationship with the water spirit in order to be married to a man of her tribe. Essentially the girl's body is painted from her breasts up and covered in ceremonial cloth from under the breasts down. Then they are put on display for a period of time until they must go to a river and sing and dance for days on end in an attempt to break the romantic bond between the young girl and the river spirit. It sounds pretty exhausting, but not nearly as bad as much of the other rites of passage on this list!!

"My Life as a Mythic Detective"

“My Life as a Mythic Detective”

In the famous words of Bob Dylan, “...oh times they are changin’...”. In my middle school history class, the teacher would play Bob Dylan tracks and ask us what our own interpretation of the lyrics we just listened to were. The teacher would tell us that Mr. Dylan didn’t write the songs to mean something, but to mean anything as long as you were really thinking about it. As you listen to a myth, you delve into the meanings behind each twist and turn in the story, wondering what each lyric or line means besides its obvious statement. Just like music, myths have many different interpretations for the words used and stories told, but the elements present in each interpreter’s point of view will tend to correlate. When I think of a myth, I see many layers of detail describing various aspects of the story, but as you peel away each layer of detail, you eventually find yourself at the same foundation of belief as you would if you were to delve into many other myths from different cultures. The Earth Diver myths, and the other creation stories, are great examples of very similar mythological elements found among very different cultures.

When I first walked into this class last August, I came with an open mind and a slight thirst for knowledge. Greek and Egyptian mythology, as well as urban legends, has fascinated me ever since I can remember, so I was excited to study mythologies in college. I enjoyed the different aspects of mythology we studied, as well as the different activities we used to study these myths. From various initiation rites, rites of passage, to several different variations of the same etiological myth spanning across multiple cultures. From being stung by the most painful-stinging bug on the planet hundreds of times, jumping off the top of a rickety tower of sticks with nothing but a tree vine tied to your ankle keeping you from splitting your head open on the ground, to singing to the river for several days. Then from the hundreds of different stories passed down through the generations that describe different explanations of origins for just about anything.

These days we have access to almost any cultures’ stories, traditions, and cultural preferences when it comes to social or religious belief, through various forms of technology in today’s world. With such tools as publishing and education, to the very modern tools such as the internet, google, wikipedia, and social networking sites, we can study multiple cultures and belief systems at the same time without having to travel to the other side of the world to hear it for yourself. I believe this has impacted not only oral traditions of beliefs being passed down through generations, but the necessity to continue using oral beliefs when education and acceptance of other cultures and religions has been introduced as well. Throughout world history, cultures have grown, expanded, and bonded with other cultures, often times sharing beliefs and other aspects of their lives with other cultures when their populations meet. In today’s world, you don’t need to travel to other countries to be influenced by other cultures. In Los Angeles, driving through the city you can experience numerous different cultural influences on every other block. Granted today people are a lot more accepting of other cultures than they were even decades ago, let alone centuries. Many cultures have spread across the globe, carrying their own etiology and mythology along for the ride.

During the presentations of the displaced myths, we were instructed to create a story that portrayed the same elements of similar belief as a myth of our choice. Then after each presentation, the class had to guess which displaced myth was behind each story. All of my peers did very well on their stories, but they guessed my displaced myth correct right away. In high school one of my favorite books I studied was the odyssey. It was one of the only books I read every assignment out of in highschool, and I really enjoyed all of the different elements of myth throughout the epic. It was because of these things that I decided to choose a displaced myth story from Odysseus’ great journey, specifically the confrontation of the cyclops.

I still remember one of my first experiences of a myth. My older brother told me that if you sleep with a blanket over your head, you would suffocate in your sleep and die before you wake up. Another myth my brother told me was that if you ride a bicycle bare feet, you would get your feet ripped off. Needless to say, my older brother found entertainment in my pre-education mind and its reaction to extreme danger from fairly common adolescent behavior, which was arguably understandable considering my age and his very convincing demeanor. Skepticism became somewhat of a necessity of growing up, which is common, but you can't deny curiosity from the adolescent mind. I still became fascinated with myths and legends, and after a decade or two, I still keep learning so much about mythology.