9. The Australian aboriginals had a number of painful ways for boys to prove their manliness
Australian’s aboriginal people had – and indeed, continue to have – a number of ways to mark the transition from a boy to a man. And, though they varied from tribe to tribe, some of them were very painful indeed. The first rites-of-passage would take place when a boy turned 12. Known as the ‘tossing ceremony’, this saw the young boy tossed into the air and then caught by various male relatives. Once that ritual had been negotiated, the boy needed to overcome tougher obstacles before he would be seen as a man in his tribe.
Many tribes would practice circumcision, with this performed on teenage youths rather than on infant boys. What’s more, in some communities, the newly-circumcised youths would be required to smear their blood onto the backs of other males from their tribe. The process would continue some time later when the youths would be required to carry burning branches and endure the pain of embers falling down onto their bare bodies. After that, they might be required to lie on top of hot embers for several minutes. And finally, the ‘knocking out ceremony’ saw an initiate’s tooth knocked out with a stone. It would then be thrown to the boy’s mother – and his transformation from boy to man was deemed complete.