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Tooth-Filing
Ceremony
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| The cremation ceremony we attended at the kindness of our friend Katut, included another ceremony - a tooth-filing ceremony - of which these 4 kids were the subjects. At the end of puberty (age 20 or so) young people go through a ceremony in which they have their canines filed flat to represent the passage of childhood and the entrance into adulthood. The last animalistic qualities of puberty are filed away. At the same time the front teeth are filed straight across. |