A Coming of Age

In traditional Aborigine culture, the entrance to male adolescence is marked by the " walkabout". Only males participate in this ritual, at around 15 or 16. So male teenagers have to go out into the wild and survive alone, away from his village, for one year. There, he will need to use the hunting, tracking, and survival skills he learned from his elders in order to succeed. If a the chosen teenager chooses not to participate or fails at the task, he will be placed in a low part of society. Whereas if he succeeds, the teenager will be placed into a much higher part of the village and be guaranteed a spot for a high ranking individual. I can honestly not think about anything in our culture that can be compared to something like this. No one is really expected to go out into the wild wood for a year and survive on their own. We just don't work like that.