In other societies, such as in Africa, if a young boy could kill a deer or another large animal, then it was reasoned that he could support a family. He is a man. In what is today’s upper state New York, a young Indian boy was given only a knife to survive during the harsh winter. If he survived the ordeal and returned in the spring, then he was a man. Some of the Native American religions had a Sun Dance which was reproduced in the movie A Man Called Horse starring Richard Harris.
The Australian Aborigines have a very demanding rite.
The Australian aborigines known as Aranda are also organized as patrilocal bands... . The Aranda puberty rites, though, are much more elaborate, and they go on for weeks instead of only days. The initiate is led from one ordeal to another; he is circumcised, lacerated, and made to suffer terrible pain in many ways. One night he is suddenly thrown spread-eagled on top of a human operating table formed by his kinsmen kneeling on their hands and knees. Other kinsmen stretch him on his back while the ritual surgeon seizes the boy's penis, inserts a long thin bone deep into the urethra, and slashes at the penis again and again with a small piece of flint used as a scalpel. He cuts through the layers of flesh until he reaches the bone, and the penis splits open like a boiled frankfurter. The boy is then led to a fire over which he squats while his blood runs out into the embers. This operation, known technically as subincision, is the final step in his becoming a man in the Aranda band.[1]
The male’s rite of passage can be psychologically and physically dangerous if not deadly. The female rite of passage is far less frightening. One day, the little girl runs to her mother and says, “Mommy, I am bleeding.” Her womanhood begins with the menarche. For many young males, must continuously demonstrate their manhood to others, and more importantly, to themselves.
[1] Peter Farb, Man's Rise to Civilization: As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State (New York: Avon/Discus Books, 1969), 99.