seclusion lodge

plural seclusion lodges

1. anthropologyA traditional dwelling placed apart from a community, tribe etc., for the use of those under ceremonial or taboo restrictions.

   The huts were seclusion lodges, where we were to live isolated from society.

   1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 30

   2 more examples

   The seclusion lodge houses circumcision initiates, keeping them separate from the rest of the community.

   1996, Jerry D Moore, Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes, page 140

   The birth lodge, the puberty rite lodge, the menstrual seclusion lodge, as well as the family dwelling built and owned by the woman, show that previously the Plateau-built environment was almost exclusively under women's purview.

   2006, Mary C Wright, in Kelm & Townsend, In the Days of our Grandmothers, p. 265