Perhaps we need a more proper goad for the discussion. Ima' copy-pasting from Wikipedia's page on Rites of Passage to provide real world examples to get the creative juices properly flowing for this interactive dialog. *ahem*
Quote:
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures. Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as other milestones within puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. Initiation ceremonies such as baptism, confirmation and Bar or Bat Mitzvah are considered important rites of passage for people of their respective religions. Rites of passage have three phases.
In the first phase, people withdraw from their current status and prepare to move from one place or status to another. "The first phase (of separation) comprises symbolic behaviour signifying the detachment of the individual or group ... from an earlier fixed point in the social structure."[4] There is often a detachment or "cutting away" from the former self in this phase, which is signified in symbolic actions and rituals. For example, the cutting of the hair for a person who has just joined the army. He or she is "cutting away" the former self: the civilian.
"In the third phase (reaggregation or reincorporation) the passage is consummated [by] the ritual subject."[6] Having completed the rite and assumed their "new" identity, one re-enters society with one's new status. Re-incorporation is characterized by elaborate rituals and ceremonies, like debutant balls and college graduation, and by outward symbols of new ties: thus "in rites of incorporation there is widespread use of the 'sacred bond', the 'sacred cord', the knot, and of analogous forms such as the belt, the ring, the bracelet and the crown."[7]
Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization in many African communities. These rites function by ritually marking the transition of someone to full group membership. [8] It also links individuals to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spiritual world. Initiation rites are a natural and necessary part of a community, just as arms and legs are natural and necessary extension of the human body. These rites are linked to individual and community development. Dr. Manu Ampim identifies five stages; rite to birth, rite to adulthood, rite to marriage, rite to eldership and rite to ancestorship. [9] In Zulu culture entering womanhood is celebrated by the Umhlanga (ceremony).
Coming of age
Bar Mitzvah
Breeching
Débutante ball
Dokimasia
First driver's license or other official identity card
First haircut
Quinceañera in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America.
Russ in Norway
Scarification and various other physical endurances
Sweet Sixteen in the United States and Canada
Sevapuneru or Turmeric ceremony in South India to mark menarche
Etoro tribe and Baruya in Papua New Guinea where young boys must begin ingesting their elders semen, and then stop doing it at a certain age.
In various tribal societies, entry into an age grade—generally gender-separated—(unlike an age set) is marked by an initiation rite, which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation, sometimes in retreat.
[edit] Religion
Jesus underwent Jewish circumcision, here depicted in a Catholic cathedral; a liturgical feast commemorates this on New Year's Day
Baptism
First Eucharist and First Confession (especially First Communion in Catholicism)
Confirmation (most Western Christian denominations, such as Catholic, and mainline Protestant churches)
Confirmation in Reform Judaism
Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah in Judaism
Rumspringa
Circumcision, mainly in Judaism (Bris)
Diving for the Cross, in some Orthodox Christian churches
Hajj
Samscara a series of sacraments in Hinduism
Shinbyu in Theravada Buddhism
Vision quest in some Native American cultures
"Quinceañera" many whose celebrations include a Catholic mass at church
Coming of Age in Unitarian Universalism
[edit] Others
Secular coming of age ceremonies for non-religious youngsters who want a rite of passage comparable to the religious rituals like confirmation
Walkabout
Batizados in Capoeira
Black Belt Grading in Martial Arts
Castration in some sects and special castes
Virginity
First Alcoholic Beverage
Grandmotherhood
[edit] Armed forces
Accolade
Baptism by fire
Battlefield commission, equivalent to ennoblement for valor or knighting on the field in the ancien régime
Berserker, berserkergang – an initiatory Nordic warrior-rite; the young Scandinavian warrior of old or Viking had to symbolically transform into a bear or wolf before he could become an elite warrior (cf. Cuchulain's transformation)
Blood wings
Counting coup
Krypteia – a "robber-baron" or "bandit-warrior" rite of the military youths of ancient Sparta
Pas d'armes
Trial by battle, or Judicium Dei (Judgment of God)
U.S. Marines: Crucible
U.S. Navy: Battle Stations
Naval (military and civilian) crossing the equator
In the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy, wetting-down is a ceremony in which a Naval officer is ceremonially thrown into the ocean upon receiving a promotion.
U.S. Army: Victory Forge
In many military organizations, as in civilian groups, new conscripts are sometimes subjected by "veterans" to practical jokes, ranging from taking advantage of their naïveté to public humiliation and physical attacks; see Hazing.
Soldiers and sailors may also be hazed again on obtaining a promotion.
In Greece conscription is mandatory and has been historically linked with maturing of a man. The army was historically perceived as the "natural" way to go and as a final "school" of socialization and maturing for young men before their come out to the real world; also it would be the first time a young man would find himself on his own and away from home. Consequently, draft dodgers, deserters, or men unable to serve encountered prejudice, were often frowned upon and deemed useless by conservative societies
[edit] Academic groups
Some academic circles such as dorms, fraternities, teams and other clubs practice
Hazing
Ragging
Fagging
Szecskáztatás, a mild form of hazing (usually without physical and sexual abuse) practiced in some Hungarian secondary schools. First-year junior students (szecskák [singular form: szecska]) are publicly humiliated through embarrassing clothing and senior students branding their faces (with marker pens); it is sometimes also a contest, with the winners usually earning the right to organize the next event.
Entrance into Medicine and Pharmacy (University):
White Coat Ceremony
In Spanish universities of the Modern Age, like Universidad Complutense in Alcalá de Henares, upon completion of his studies, the student was submitted to a public questioning by the faculty, who could ask sympathetic questions that let him excel or tricky points. If the student passed he invited professors and friends to a party. If not, he was publicly processioned with donkey ears.
Entrance to the profession of Engineer:
The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, also known as the Iron Ring Ceremony
Entrance into Architecture (University):
Walk on Water: Second-year students must pass the competition to continue in the school of architecture at Florida International University in the United States
Graduations, celebrations, ostracizations, subjectifications, and justifications are can all be rites in and of themselves. What we are tasked with is what these things would look like for Slop's beastmen world and what unique things to that world would have their own bizarre and alien rituals.
Example: We saw in one of the early comics a
dashboard distraction with a rubbed off face. What if the vilken have/had a practice where a superior would stroke a paw from a subordinates head from nose to crown. Mayhap this tradition was started by the priests of an organized religion for supplication and usurped by nobility as a way to interact, show approval, or make agreements with the lower classes with a minimum of dirty contact. A vilka teenager coupling could have a simple ceremony where each places the others hand on their head as publicly submitting to each other and announcing to all that the two have or will have intercourse. Thus the rubbing has different connotations that could be religious, social, or sexual based upon the context of the situation.
_________________
"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." -
JET