ABSTRACT
Ritualized beheadings are said to play an important role in male initiation and in molding the configurations of maleness within numerous tribal societies. This chapter argues that ngayó a form of ritual beheading found among the Bugkalot of the Philippines. It explains ngayó, that should be seen as a form of suicide, that is, a self-kill, that allows a transformation of the person to take place; not only socially but in the very materiality of his body. The chapter describes the different forms of bodily materiality: from the ontologically unsolid body of the youth, to the body which hardens, is condensed in time and space, as ngayó is restrained through the accumulation of knowledge. It explains the notion of autonomy that can be expanded through M. Heidegger's thoughts about "being-towards-death". Such notions of "gradual dying" as being tied to the very materiality of the body are found in many societies.
