In a way the various mutilations, bodymodifications and tattooing...

In a way the various mutilations, bodymodifications and tattooing inflicted upon a human entering a primitive group, are metaphors of the Superego shocks - the shaping of the human as it is needed by the group. In our civilization this programmingbegins fromday 1,but in many preurban societies the intense stuff begins at apoint which is the accepted 'endof childhood', whenthe child in question is initiated into its new adult role in a waywhich very directlystructures the personalityin a direction needed by the group.

From a psychofunctionalist perspective, the initiation serves todestroythe psyche which has been formed until then, in orderto producebyidentical ritual for all children, the social and individual characters needed for the maintenance of the societyinquestion. In Australia the native boyis suddenlykidnapped by men pretending tobe daemons 5, who take him from home into the wild, where he is beaten, cut, starved, fed various concoctions, forced todrink human blood - and upon his return he is no longer the child he was, but a 'warrior' and 'hunter', such as the tribe needs.

Inother societies, like the more isolated tribes ofPapua New Guinea, the boy is raped by the adult males in between lessons on hunting and mythology, and instead of blood consumes sperm. Insome Muslim societies, whenthe time comes, the little girl is suddenly whisked awayto a special tent where she is held down by her female relatives who sing songs todrown out her cries as her clitoris and labia are being cut off. After that the girls is also no longer a child, but the kindof 'woman' which the societyinquestionhas need of. In our civilization we no longer have (at least not ininstitutionalized forms) so sharplyfocused crude and cruel moments which break ourpsyches at a specific point in childhood, to turnus into the creatures demanded by the gods and ancestors, but still everychild is programmed in moreor less traumatic manners to become into the adult he or she is.

Mouth, Anus, Genitals

As the human child grows in our version of the patriarchate, it first passes through an oral, and later - through an anal stage ofdevelopment: "Duringthe oral stage the infant is becoming Sigmund Freud, 'Civilization and it's Discontents'(1929) p 136, The Hogarth Press, 1991 Joseph Campbell, 'The Power of Myth', Bulgarian Edition, 2001 aware of others and begins to assumerelationships with them. during the anal stage he learns to relinquishimmediate instinctual gratification in order to please or at any rate influence them."

The first stage concerns the suckling period, in which the world is experienced by consuming with the mouth. the second stage concerns the 'toilet training' period, in which on one hand the little human is forced to control its defecation and urinationfunctions according to the family's plan, and on the other - it learns to influence events and people by doingor not doing a specific act.

The beginning of social politics for the little human, and also the beginning of a) association of anal and urethral tensionwithpleasure and b) association of defecation with 'makinga gift'. Humans are not the onlycreatures with a 'toilet training' layer in their psyche -pets in urban homes undergo similar conditioningand inthis respect are closer to humans than other living creatures.