ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the performance of Awa initiation rituals within the context of an unfolding system of knowledge. The sweating, fasting, and physical ordeals of induction into the men's house occur over several days. They are accompanied by a lack of sleep and an abundance of verbal abuse concerning the lack of past helpfulness and the boys' general ineptitude. The brunt of the beating is borne during the first night of this period, but further beatings may occur over the next day or two while the initiates are in the men's house, sweating and fasting. The women continued to shout at the men, however, and several of them came onto the men's ground and threw down their bundles of switches in disgust in front of the men's house. The sweat ceremony begins when the initiates, now in their early to mid-twenties, are taken into the men's house, where they will remain for a week or more.
