This article analyzes the ceremony of passage from childhood to adulthood performed by the Selk'nam, an aboriginal people of Chile, reviewing the underlying myth that gives rise to the ceremony. The myth is analyzed, which clearly expresses a danger to the patriarchal order and shows a threat from the feminine, in the transition to being a man in the community. For this analysis, Freud's text Totem and Taboo is used, along with contributions from R. Money Kyrle on the use of clothing and body paint and from J. Steiner on defenses against female dependence. The difficulty generated by the existing helplessness and strong dependence on the mother is proposed at the base, with a reaction of disqualification of women as a defense of this, carried out actively by men and passively by women.