Version 1
: Received: 18 September 2024 / Approved: 19 September 2024 / Online: 19 September 2024 (13:56:11 CEST)
How to cite:
OKEKE, I. The Rites and Rituals of Ibe-Ugwu as a Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland; the Ukawu Example. Preprints2024, 2024091537. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1537.v1
OKEKE, I. The Rites and Rituals of Ibe-Ugwu as a Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland; the Ukawu Example. Preprints 2024, 2024091537. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1537.v1
OKEKE, I. The Rites and Rituals of Ibe-Ugwu as a Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland; the Ukawu Example. Preprints2024, 2024091537. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1537.v1
APA Style
OKEKE, I. (2024). The Rites and Rituals of Ibe-Ugwu as a Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland; the Ukawu Example. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1537.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
OKEKE, I. 2024 "The Rites and Rituals of Ibe-Ugwu as a Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland; the Ukawu Example" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1537.v1
Abstract
This research has its focus on the African Igbo people of Southeast Nigeria. In all the manifestations of culture across the globe, there exist practices which celebrate life circle transitions especially from birth until the termination of human life. One of such practices is the rite of passage. 'Ibe-ugwu' (circumcision) is a rite of passage observed among the Ukawu people of Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria. The rites and rituals have their main focus on preparing and equipping the female adolescents of Ukawu (Igbo) community to assume the roles of wives, mothers, and women in the society, ready to make their own contributions towards the development of the community, family and by extension the global community. It is the contention of this work, that the continued neglect of such cultural heritage is one of the major reasons for seeming African Igbo loss of identity, moral decadence and social vices amongst her youths today. The work advocates for a revival of such African Igbo cultural heritage. This research makes use of documented, observation and interview methods of data gathering while deploying the sociological (structural functionalist) approach in its data analysis.
Keywords
Rites; Rituals; Gateway; Womanhood; Igboland
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Religious Studies
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
