This is a great TED talk by Ron Eglash, an Ethno Mathematician who discovered that African villages are built to reveal the same pattern on many different scales.  There is self similarity.  Unlike indigenous people found anywhere else in the world, African villages contain fractal geometry.

Eglash got a grant to go to Africa and investigate this phenomenon, and in the process of his research it was necessary for him to be initiated as a Bamana priest.  Niall Campbell and Nicola Robbins from the Raindance Network wrote an article about Eglash’s reaction towards his initiation:

“When Eglash said he was only interested in the
mathematics, he spoke unconsciously for
Western man who desired the progress of
technology without the context of responsibility.
Unlike the classic Western divide between
science and church, between technology and its
moral context, traditional Africa never separated
these things.”

You can read the entire article titled: FRACTALS, RITUAL AND THE AFRICAN LAW OF TECHNOLOGY here.  It is a fascinating dissection of how modern man has forgotten the methodologies, or the Laws, that govern their interaction with nature and the earth.

It is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in initiatory processes, and what their function is.