Ndembu

For the Ndembu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by contrast, twins represent an excess of fertility more characteristic of the animal world than the human, and rituals are undertaken to protect the community from this anomalous condition.

…of passage for newly elected Ndembu kings. The rite in which the crown-elect, en route to his elevation as king, assumes the role of a commoner includes ritual humiliation. He is stripped of his royal stature and given lowly status before he is exalted. Humiliation serves to remind the future…