Special thanks to George Helmer FPS

FREEMASONRY AND THE MEN'S HOUSE

BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD

THE BUILDER - 1923

Part 1 of 2

I - ANTHROPOLOGISTS DISCOVER THE MEN'S HOUSE

EVER SINCE Heinrich Schurtz published his Altersklassen
und Maennerbunde in 1902, anthropologists have become
more and more interested in the part played by secret
societies among primitive peoples.  Herr Schurtz discovered
that secret societies were not by any means a private thing,
of little interest and less consequence, as former
anthropologists had believed them to be, but that they were
of equal importance in primitive life with other social
institutions.  He found that "in intimate connection with the
age-classes, and more particularly with the dominant role
played by the organized bachelors, there develops the men's
house.  It is characteristic as a structure in which the adult
but single men cook their meals, work, play and sleep, while
the married men dwell apart with their families.  Women and
children are usually barred from the premises, while the
mature young girls may freely consort with the inmates."

Prof. Hutton Webster, of the University of Nebraska, working
independently and without knowledge of the findings of
Schurtz, arrived at the same conclusion, and wrote a treatise
on the subject that has proved of the utmost importance to
students of secret societies.  This was published in 1908
under the title of Primitive Secret Societies: A Study in Early
Politics and Religion.  The central conception of this book is
that of the men's house.  Prof. Webster describes this at
some length on the first page of this book as follows:

"The separation of the sexes which exists in civilized
societies is the outcome, in part, of natural distinctions of sex
and economic function; in part it finds an explanation in
those feelings of sexual solidarity to which we owe the
existence of our clubs and unions.  Sexual solidarity itself is
only another expression for the working of that universal law
of human sympathy, or in more modern phrase, of
consciousness of kind, which lies at the foundation of all
social relations.  But in primitive societies, to these forces
bringing about sexual separation, there is added a force
even more potent, which originates in widespread beliefs as
to the transmissibility of sexual characteristics from one
individual to another.  Out of these beliefs have arisen many
curious and interesting taboos designed to prevent the real
or imagined dangers incident to the contact of the sexes.
Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the
institution known as the men's house, of which examples are
to be found among primitive peoples throughout the world.

"The men's house is usually the largest building in a tribal
settlement.  It belongs in common to the villagers; it serves
as council-chamber and town hall, as a guest-house for
strangers, and as the sleeping resort of the men.
Frequently, seats in the house are assigned to elders and
other leading individuals according to their dignity and
importance.  Here the precious belongings of the community,
such as trophies taken in war or in the chase, and religious
emblems of various sorts are preserved.  Within its
precincts, women and children, and men not fully initiated
members of the tribe, seldom or never enter.  When
marriage and the exclusive possession of a woman do not
follow immediately upon initiation into the tribe, the institution
of the men's house becomes an effective restraint upon the
sexual proclivities of the unmarried youth.  It then serves as
a clubhouse for the bachelors whose residence within it may
be regarded as a perpetuation of that formal seclusion of the
lads from the women, which it is the purpose of the initiation
ceremonies in the first place to accomplish.  Such communal
living on the part of the young men is a visible token of their
separation from the narrow circle of the family, and of their
introduction to the duties and responsibilities of tribal life.
The existence of such an institution emphasizes the fact that
a settled family life with a private abode is the privilege of the
older men, who alone have marital rights over the women of
the tribe.  For promiscuity, either before or after marriage, is
the exception among primitive peoples, who attempt not only
to regulate by complicated and rigorous marriage systems
the sexual desires of those who are competent to marry, but
actually to prevent any intercourse at all of those who are not
fully initiated members of the community.

"An institution so firmly established and so widely spread
may be expected to survive by devotion to other uses, as the
earlier ideas which led to its foundation fade away.  As guard
posts where the young men are confined on military duty
and are exercised in the arts of war, these houses often
become a serviceable means of defence.  The religious
worship of the community frequently centers in them.  Often
they form the theatre of dramatic representations.  In rare
instances these institutions seem to have lost their original
purpose and to have facilitated sexual communism rather
than sexual separation.  Among some tribes men's house is
used as the centre of the puberty initiation ceremonies.  With
the development of secret societies, replacing the earlier
tribal puberty institutions, the mens house frequently
becomes the seat of these organizations and forms the
secret 'lodge.' The presence then in a primitive community of
the men's house in any form of its numerous forms points
strongly to the existence, now, or in the past, of secret
initiation ceremonies." (Primitive Secret Societies, pages 1,
2, 3)

One may doubt the accuracy of Prof. Webster when he says
that "examples are to be found among primitive people
throughout the world." There are not many examples to be
found in Asia and it may very well be that in certain parts of
that continent the primitive secret society has never been
known: some authorities are of that opinion, Schurtz for
example, who was not able to discover traces of men's
secret societies over large portions of the continent.  In his
chapter on "Diffusion of Ancient Ceremonies," Webster has
himself furnished no Asiatic examples but has confined
himself to Australia, Tasmania, Melanesia, Polynesia, South
America, Central America and North America.

It is impossible in the present limitations of space to set
down very many examples of the primitive secret cult: a few
specimens will suffice.  Among the Andaman Islanders there
are three kinds of huts, for bachelors, spinsters and married
couples, respectively. In their eleventh year boys and girts
are subjected to various ordeals and in every case must
participate in elaborate ceremonies upon passing from one
age grade to another. Women participate in these mysteries
as well as men. Most Australian tribes have initiation
ceremonies at or near the time of puberty.  In most cases
these ceremonies are very severe; men only are admitted;
and the rite appears usually to be a form of preparation for
matrimony.  The Masai divide their male members into three
grades of boys, warriors, and elders; their ceremony is
accompanied by circumcision.  Among the Banks Islanders
the males constitute a kind of triple secret society but this
group is entered not by initiation but by paying a fee.  Men
live in the village club house, which is a lounging place and
eating place by day and dormitory by night: they are divided
into grades with power and prestige accordingly, and only
men of wealth can reach the higher positions.  This same
people have "Ghost Societies" which are very secret in their
nature and have headquarters in the most secluded places.
Among the Pueblo Indians the Zunis had a "Mask Dancer"
society, in which there were degrees, initiations, and much
primitive mummery: each society had its own lodge building
in which were apartments representing the four quarters of
the compass, the zenith, and the nadir.  The Hopi Indians
had similar secret fraternities and so also the Crows, who
had a "Tobacco Society" with initiation ceremonies, degrees,
etc. The Hidatsas had many social clubs, entrance to which
was gained through purchase: their women had similar
organizations.  On the other hand the Shoshoneans of the
Great Basin have apparently never had anything that may be
properly classed as a secret society.  These cases are but
typical of the countless instances in which primitive people -
or savages as we call them - have made use of secret
organizations.

II - TRIBAL INITIATION IS A SEVERE ORDEAL

In most cases the initiation ceremonies are in the nature of
ordeals and many times are so severe that death or
permanent crippling is not unknown.  "The diversity of the
ordeals is most interesting.  Thus, depilation, head biting,
evulsion of teeth, sprinkling with human blood, emersion in
dust or filth, heavy flogging, scarification, smoking and
burning, circumcision and subincision, are some of the forms
in which the ordeals appear, among the Australians alone....
Of all these ordeals circumcision has the greatest
prominence..... Almost universally initiation rites include a
mimic representation of the death and resurrection of the
novice. The new life to which he awakes from initiation is
one utterly forgetful of the old; a new name, a new language,
and new principles are its natural accompaniment......... A
new language is closely associated with the new name.  The
possession of an esoteric speech known only to initiated
members is highly useful as lending an additional mystery to
the proceedings......... The various ceremonies which take
place on the arrival of girls at puberty are distinctly less
impressive than those of the boys.  As a rule there is no
admittance at a formal initiation possessing tribal aspects
and secret rites......... No doubt various beliefs arising from
many different sources have united to establish the
necessity of secluding boys and girls at puberty.

"Isolation from the things of flesh and sense has been a
device not infrequently employed by people of advanced
culture for the furtherance of spiritual life, and we need not
be surprised to find uncivilized man resorting to similar
devices for more practical purposes.  The long fasts, the
deprivation of sleep, the constant excitement of the new and
unexpected, the nervous reaction under long-continued
torments, result in a condition of extreme sensitiveness -
hyper - aesthesia- which is certainly favourable to the
reception of impressions that will be indelible.  The lessons
learned in such a tribal school as the puberty institution
constitutes, abide through life.

"Another obvious motive dictating a period of seclusion is
found in the wisdom of entirely separating the youth at
puberty from the women until lessons of sexual restraint
have been learned.  New Guinea natives, for instance, say
that 'when boys reach the age of puberty, they ought not to
be exposed to the rays of the sun, lest they suffer thereby;
they must not do heavy manual work, or their physical
development will be stopped, all possibility of mixing with
females must be avoided, lest they become immoral, or
illegitimacy become common in the tribe.' Where the men's
house is found in a tribal community, this institution
frequently serves to prolong the seclusion of the younger
initiated men for many years after puberty is reached."
(Primitive Secret Societies, pages 36, 37, 38, 41, 45, 47.)

"Puberty institutions for the initiation of young men into
manhood are among the most widespread and characteristic
features of primitive life.  They are found among peoples
considered the lowest of mankind: among Andamanese,
Hottentots, Fuegians, and Australians; and they exist in
various stages of development among peoples emerging
from savagery to barbarism.  Their foundation goes back to
an unknown antiquity; their mysteries, jealously guarded
from the eye of all save the initiated, preserve the religion
and morality of the tribe.  Though varying endlessly in detail,
their leading characteristics reproduce themselves with
substantial uniformity among many different peoples and in
widely separated areas of the world.  The initiation by the
tribal elders of the young men of the tribe, their rigid
seclusion, sometimes for a lengthy period, from the women
and children; their subjection to certain ordeals and to rites
designed to change their entire natures; the utilization of this
period of confinement to convey to the novices a knowledge
of the tribal traditions and customs, and finally, the
inculcation by most practical methods of habits of respect
and obedience to the older men - all these features are well
described in the quaint and vigorous account by an old writer
of the ceremonies once practised by the Tuscarora Indians
of North Carolina." (Ibid, page 32.)

POTS

The definitions of Freemasonry have been numerous,
and they all unite in declaring it to be "a system of
morality, by the practice of which its members may
advance their spiritual interest, and mount by the
theological ladder from the Lodge on earth to the
Lodge in Heaven." - Albert Macoy

o enter your e-mail address and choose password

| top | back |