Rites of Passage

[psy_marionette]

The other day, I was reading and came across a reference to temple prostitution. This is a practice reportedly practiced long ago at the temples of Ishtar, which involved a woman being required to go to the temple and wait for a man to give her a coin (I *think* a special coin just used for the purpose), at which point she would "have to" go with

Comments

[anonymous]

There's a good few coming-of-age rituals within religious organizations still. Confirmation and First Communion spring to mind. And can't graduation be considered one? It's hardly an ordeal, but what comes before it is.

Also: haha, Nathan's reading about strippers!

[psy_marionette]

First communion I'm not sure about, having not been raised Catholic. But Confirmation into the Episcopalian church was a verbal equivalent of the "hey, sign here." Also, I agree that it's an event deemed special, but I hardly even remembered the specific event by the end of the day, which is kind of my point about initiation rituals in general.