Initiation (redirected from Initiation ritual)

initiation, the transition and attendant ceremonies, such as ordeals and rites, involved in passing from one state or status to another, often from childhood to adulthood. It was among the most important social institutions of early humans. The ordeal measures the initiate's worthiness to enter the new status. Initiation may mean the cessation of contact with those who have not been initiated. Seclusion, mutilation, symbolic representation of death and resurrection, the display of sacred objects, special instruction, and restrictions on the initiate are frequent attributes of the ceremonies. Many early societies had puberty initiations. Their purpose was to induct the young person both into the full status of an adult and into the religion of the group.

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initiation [i‚nish·ē′ā·shən]

(ordnance)

As applied to an explosive item, the beginning of the deflagration or detonation of the explosive.

The first action in a fuse which occurs as a direct result of the action of the functioning medium.

In a time fuse, the starting of the action which is terminated in the functioning of the fused munition.

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Initiation 

the excitation of a chain chemical or nuclear reaction as a result of an external influence on the system (such as an impact, light, ionizing radiation, or a neutron flux). In technology initiation is understood to mean, in particular, the excitation of detonation of an explosive by exploding a small portion of a detonating powder that is sensitive to a spark or impact. The charge of detonating powder is placed in the case of a priming cap or electrical detonator. Modern industrial coarse explosives (such as igdanit, granulites, and grain granu-lites) and water explosives (akvatol and ifzanit) are not susceptible to the detonating action (impulse) of a conventional priming cap; a relay detonator (such as an ammonite cartridge or a TNT charge) that is sensitive to the priming cap and increases the energy of the detonating impulse is used to detonate such explosives.

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Initiation 

a system of rituals widespread in clan society connected with the passage of adolescent boys and girls into adulthood. The various rituals were aimed at preparing the young for work and social and family life and were accompanied, as a rule, by training; various, frequently agonizing, trials; surgery (circumcision, cicatrization, knocking out of teeth); and introduction into the secrets and myths of the tribe. After the original meaning was lost, some of the initiation rites were extended to still younger individuals. The practice of circumcision in Islam and Judaism, Christian baptism, and the investing of the sacred thread in Hinduism are vestiges of initiation.