Traditionally, basides marriage, the most important rites of passage, for the girls, were the restrictions following first menstruation, when they were informed about the danger inherent to menstrual blood which could unduly attract, by its smell, monstruous aquatic spirits. During these periods, the women cannot go to the river, to the garden, cook, nor even prepare caxixi.

The young men would go through a period of rigorous learning and seclusion when they intended to become shamans. Finally, the end-of-mourning rituals were occasions when many people of different local groups came together, and thus at the same time that they would despatch the spirit of the dead, freeing it to go up to the sky, the Galibi would reconstitute their social and sumbolic world as well as renew the cosmos.

Today, the rites of passage are different, but the ancient beliefs still make sense and their values are preserved. This creates positive ambivalence and ethnicity. Children are baptized and are duly prepared for their first communion. Mr. Geraldo Lod is proud that his marriage, in the 40s, in Mana, was the first to be celebrated as both a civil and religious union, following the Catholic faith. "I opened the way”, he said. The young people, today, still have to go through school, at times go through public competition for jobs, and prepare themselves for a life of work, which consists of traditional subsistence activities, plus tasks that will permit them to earn some money, and political training that ensures for each individual and his group, autonomy and integration into ever more extensive networks of