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INITIATION (Lat. inilium, beginning, ...
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See also:INITIATION (See also:Lat. inilium, beginning, entrance, from mire, to go in) , the See also:process of formally entering, and especially the rite of See also:admission into, some See also:office, or religious or See also:secret society, &c. Among nearly all See also:primitive races initiatory See also:rites of a bloody See also:character were and are See also:common. The See also:savage pays See also:homage to strength, and the purpose of his initiatory rites is to test See also:physical vigour, self-See also:control and the See also:power of enduring See also:pain. Initiatign is sometimes religious, sometimes social, but in primitive society it has always the same character. Thus, in Whydah (See also:West See also:Africa) the See also:young girls consecrated to the See also:worship of the See also:serpent, " the brides of the Serpent," had figures of See also:flowers and animals burnt into their skins with hot irons; while in the neighbouring Yoruhaland the power of enduring a See also:sound See also:thrashing is the qualification for the See also:throne. In no See also:country was the practice of initiatory rites more See also:general than in the Americas. The Colombian See also:Indians compelled their would-be See also:chief to submit to terrible tests. He had first to See also:bear severe beatings without a murmur. Then, placed in a See also:hammock with his hands tied, INITIATION See also:INHIBITION- come the See also:brothers and sisters, and their issue as collaterals. Failing collaterals, the See also:inheritance ascends to the See also:father and his relations, to the entire exclusion of the See also:mother and her relations. Even when the See also:estate has descended from mother to son, it can never revert to the maternal See also:line. As to See also:succession of brothers, a distinction must be taken between an estate of heritage and an estate of See also:conquest. Conquest is where the deceased has acquired the See also:land otherwise than as See also:heir, and corresponds to the See also:English See also:term See also:purchase in the technical sense explained. Heritage is land acquired by deceased as heir. The distinction is important only in the See also:case when the heir of the deceased is to be sought among his brothers; when the descent is lineal, conquest and heritage go to the same See also:person. And when the brothers are younger than the deceased, both conquest and heritage go to the See also:brother (or his issue) next in See also:order of See also:age. But when the deceased leaves an See also:elder and a younger brother (or their issues), the elder brother takes the conquest, the younger takes the heritage. Again, when there are several elder brothers, the one next in age to the deceased takes the conquest before the more remote, and when there are several younger brothers, the one next to the deceased takes the heritage before the more remote. When heritage of the deceased goes to an elder brother (as might happen in certain eventualities), the younger of the elder brothers is preferred. The position of the father, after the brothers and sisters of the deceased, will be noticed as an important point of difference from the English axioms; so also is the See also:total exclusion of the mother and the maternal line. As between brothers and sisters the See also:half-See also:blood only succeeds after the full blood. Half-blood is either consanguinean, as between See also:children by the same father, or uterine, as between children having the same mother. The half-blood uterine is excluded altogether. Half-blood consanguinean succeeds thus: if the issue is by a former See also:marriage, the youngest brother (being nearest to the deceased of the consanguinean) succeeds first; if by a later marriage than that from which the deceased has sprung, the eldest succeeds first. See also:United States.—See also:American See also:law has borrowed its rules of descent considerably more from the See also:civil law than the common law. " The 118 novel of Justinian has a striking resemblance to American law in giving the succession of estates to all legitimate children without distinction and disregarding all considerations of See also:primogeniture. There is one particular in which the American law differs from that of Justinian, that while generally in this country lineal descendants if they stand in an equal degree from the common ancestor See also:share equally per capita, under the See also:Roman law regard was had to the right of See also:representation, each lineal See also:branch of descendants taking only the portion which their See also:parent would have taken had he been living, the See also:division being per stirpes and not per capita. But in some of the states the See also:rule of the Roman law in this respect has been adopted and retained. Among these are Rhode See also:Island, New See also:Jersey, See also:North and See also:South Carolina, See also:Alabama and See also:Louisiana " (3 See also:Washburn's Real See also:Property, pp. 408, 409; 4 See also:Kent's See also:Comm. p. 375). When such lineal descendants stand in unequal degrees of See also:consanguinity the inheritance is per stirpcs and not per capita (In re Prole, 1907; 104, N.Y. Supplement 581). This is the rule in practically all the states. But as in no two states or territories are the rules of descent identical, the only safe guides are the statutes and decisions of the particular See also:state in which the land to be inherited is situated. The law of primogeniture as understood in See also:England is generally abolished throughout the United States, and male and See also:female relatives inherit equally. In some states, as in See also:Massachusetts, relatives of the half-blood inherit equally with those of the whole-blood of the same degree; in others, like See also:Maryland, they can inherit only in case none of whole-blood exist. In some of the states the English rule that natural children have no inheritable blood has been greatly modified. In Louisiana. if duly acknowledged, they may inherit from both father and mother in the See also:absence of lawful issue. Degrees of kindred in the United States generally are computed according to the civil law, i.e. by adding together the number of degrees between each of the two persons whose relationship is to be ascertained and the common ancestor. Thus, relation-See also:ship between two brothers is in the second degree; between See also:uncle and See also:nephew in the third degree; between See also:cousins, in the See also:fourth, &c. In a few states such degrees are computed according to the common law, i.e. by counting from the common ancestor to the most remote descendant of the two from him—thus, brothers would be related in the first degree, uncle and nephew in the second, &c. In most states representation amongst collaterals is restricted—in some to the descendants of brothers and sisters, in others to their children cnly. venomous ants were placed on his naked See also:body. Finally a See also:fire was lit beneath him. All this he had to bear without flinching. In See also:ancient See also:Mexico there were several orders of See also:chivalry, entry into which was only permitted after brutal initiation. The See also:nose of the See also:candidate was pierced with an See also:eagle's talon or a pointed See also:bone, and he was expected to dig knives into his body. In See also:Peru the young Inca princes had to fast and live for See also:weeks without See also:sleep. Among the North American Indians initiatory rites were universal. The Mandans held a feast at which the young " braves " supported the See also:weight of their bodies on pieces of See also:wood skewered through the muscles of shoulders, breasts and arms. With the See also:Sioux, to become a See also:medicine-See also:man, it was necessary to submit to the See also:ordeal known as " looking at the See also:sun." The sufferer, nearly naked, was See also:bound on the See also:earth by cords passed through holes made in the See also:pectoral muscles. With See also:bow and arrow in See also:hand, he See also:lay in this position all See also:day gazing at the sun. Around him his See also:friends gathered to applaud his courage. Religious brotherhoods of antiquity, too, were to be entered only after See also:long and complicated initiation. But here the character of the ordeal is rather moral than physical. Such were the rites of admission to the Mysteries of See also:Isis and See also:Eleusis. Secret See also:societies of all ages have been characterized by more or less elaborate initiation. That of the Femgerichte, the famous See also:medieval See also:German secret tribunal, took See also:place at See also:night in a See also:cave, the See also:neophyte kneeling and making See also:oath of See also:blind obedience. Imitations of such tests are perpetuated to-day in See also:freemasonry; while the See also:Mafia, the Catnorra, the See also:Clan-ma-Gael, the Molly Maguires, the Ku-Klux See also:Kean, are among more See also:recent secret associations which have maintained the old See also:idea of initiation. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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