An examination of male initiation rituals in tribal societies reveals their effectiveness in leading adolescent males to a mature sense of gender identity according to tribal custom and practice. Tribal initiation rituals generally involve these elements:

• removing the pubescent youth from familiar surroundings;
• differentiating him appropriately from the world of his mother;
• proving him worthy of manhood through the test of challenges and ordeals;
• allowing him to experience the spirit world;
• accepting him into the community of men;
• returning him to the tribe as a man.

Recent literature on male psychology and spirituality suggests that adolescent males in industrialised urban societies also need some form of ritual initiation. Like their counterparts in tribal cultures, they need a way to mark the end of boyhood and the beginning of manhood. Initiation rituals help meet the psychological, spiritual and developmental needs of young males as they make this transition. Male initiation rites also meet the adolescent male’s need for belonging, acceptance, and validation by older males. In industrialised urban societies, unfortunately, initiation is usually left to chance, and in most cases adolescent males search for a way of fulfilling these needs and proving their manhood by themselves—an almost impossible and often dangerous task.