Rite of passage

For other uses, see Rite of passage (disambiguation).

A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures.

Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as other milestones within puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. Initiation ceremonies such as baptism, confirmation and Bar or Bat Mitzvah are considered important rites of passage for people of their respective religions.

History

The concept of rites of passage as a general theory of socialization was first formally enunciated by Arnold van Gennep in his book (published 1909) The Rites of Passage to denote rituals marking the transitional phase between childhood and full inclusion into a tribe or social group. Gennep's work exercised a deep impact on anthropological thought.

Rites of passage have three phases: separation, transition, and reincorporation, as van Gennep described. "I propose to call the rites of separation from a previous world, preliminal rites, those executed during the transitional stage liminal (or threshold) rites, and the ceremonies of incorporation into the new world postliminal rites."

In the first phase, people withdraw from their current status and prepare to move from one place or status to another. "The first phase (of separation) comprises symbolic behaviour signifying the detachment of the individual or group ... from an earlier fixed point in the social structure." There is often a detachment or "cutting away" from the former self in this phase, which is signified in symbolic actions and rituals. For example, the cutting of the hair for a person who has just joined the army. He or she is "cutting away" the former self: the civilian.

The transition (liminal) phase is the period between states, during which one has left one place or state but has not yet entered or joined the next. "The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous."

"In the third phase (reaggregation or reincorporation) the passage is consummated [by] the ritual subject." Having completed the rite and assumed their "new" identity, one re-enters society with one's new status. Re-incorporation is characterized by elaborate rituals and ceremonies, like debutant balls and college graduation, and by outward symbols of new ties: thus "in rites of incorporation there is widespread use of the 'sacred bond', the 'sacred cord', the knot, and of analogous forms such as the belt, the ring, the bracelet and the crown."

Rites of Passage Globally

In Africa

Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization in many African communities. These rites function by ritually marking the transition of someone to full group membership. It also links individuals to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spiritual world. Initiation rites are a natural and necessary part of a community, just as arms and legs are natural and necessary extension of the human body. These rites are linked to individual and community development. Dr. Manu Ampim identifies five stages; rite to birth, rite to adulthood, rite to marriage, rite to eldership and rite to ancestorship. In Zulu culture entering womanhood is celebrated by the Umhlanga (ceremony).

Types and examples

Rites of passage are diverse, and are often not recognized as such in the culture in which they occur. Many societal rituals may look like rites of passage but miss some of the important structural and functional components. Typically the missing piece is the societal recognition and reincorporation phase. Adventure Education programs, such as Outward Bound, have often been described as potential rites of passage. Pamela Cushing researched the rites of passage impact upon adolescent youth at the Canadian Outward Bound School and found the rite of passage impact was lessened by the missing reincorporation phase (Cushing, 1998). Bell (2003) presented more evidence of this lacking third stage and described the "Contemporary Adventure Model of a Rites of Passage" as a modern and weaker version of the rites of passage typically used by outdoor adventure programs. For non-religious people, Rites of Passage are important as well. They mark important changes in our lives and they help to guide us.

Coming of age

• Bar Mitzvah
• Breeching
• Débutante ball
• Dokimasia
• First driver's license or other official identity card
• First haircut
• Quinceañera in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America
• Russ in Norway
• Scarification and various other physical endurances
• Sweet Sixteen in the United States and Canada
• Sevapuneru or Turmeric ceremony in South India to mark menarche
• Etoro tribe and Baruya in Papua New Guinea where young boys must begin ingesting their elders' semen, and then stop doing it at a certain age.

In various tribal societies, entry into an age grade—generally gender-separated—(unlike an age set) is marked by an initiation rite, which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation, sometimes in retreat.

Religion

Jesus underwent Jewish circumcision, here depicted in a Catholic cathedral; a liturgical feast commemorates this on New Year's Day

• Baptism
• First Eucharist and First Confession (especially First Communion in Catholicism)
• Confirmation (most Western Christian denominations, such as Catholic, and mainline Protestant churches)
• Confirmation in Reform Judaism
• Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah in Judaism
• Rumspringa
• Circumcision, mainly in Judaism (Bris)
• Diving for the Cross, in some Orthodox Christian churches
• Hajj
• Samscara a series of sacraments in Hinduism
• Shinbyu in Theravada Buddhism
• Vision quest in some Native American cultures
• "Quinceañera" many whose celebrations include a Catholic mass at church
• Coming of Age in Unitarian Universalism

Others

• Secular coming of age ceremonies for non-religious youngsters who want a rite of passage comparable to the religious rituals like confirmation
• Walkabout
• Batizados in Capoeira
• Black Belt Grading in Martial Arts
• Castration in some sects and special castes
• Loss of Virginity
• First Alcoholic Beverage
• Grandmotherhood

Armed forces

• Accolade
• Baptism by fire
• Battlefield commission, equivalent to ennoblement for valor or knighting on the field in the ancien régime
• Berserker, berserkergang – an initiatory Nordic warrior-rite; the young Scandinavian warrior of old or Viking had to symbolically transform into a bear or wolf before he could become an elite warrior (cf. Cuchulain's transformation)
• Blood wings
• Counting coup
• Krypteia – a "robber-baron" or "bandit-warrior" rite of the military youths of ancient Sparta
• Pas d'armes
• Trial by battle, or Judicium Dei (Judgment of God)
• U.S. Marines: Crucible
• U.S. Navy: Battle Stations
• Naval (military and civilian) crossing the equator
• In the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy, wetting-down is a ceremony in which a Naval officer is ceremonially thrown into the ocean upon receiving a promotion.
• U.S. Army: Victory Forge
• In many military organizations, as in civilian groups, new conscripts are sometimes subjected by "veterans" to practical jokes, ranging from taking advantage of their naïveté to public humiliation and physical attacks; see Hazing.
• Soldiers and sailors may also be hazed again on obtaining a promotion.
• In Greece conscription is mandatory and has been historically linked with maturing of a man. The army was historically perceived as the "natural" way to go and as a final "school" of socialization and maturing for young men before their come out to the real world; also it would be the first time a young man would find himself on his own and away from home. Consequently, draft dodgers, deserters, or men unable to serve encountered prejudice, were often frowned upon and deemed useless by conservative societies

Academic groups

Some academic circles such as dorms, fraternities, teams and other clubs practice

• Hazing
• Ragging
• Fagging
• Szecskáztatás, a mild form of hazing (usually without physical and sexual abuse) practiced in some Hungarian secondary schools. First-year junior students (szecskák [singular form: szecska]) are publicly humiliated through embarrassing clothing and senior students branding their faces (with marker pens); it is sometimes also a contest, with the winners usually earning the right to organize the next event.

Entrance into Medicine and Pharmacy (University):

• White Coat Ceremony
• In Spanish universities of the Modern Age, like Universidad Complutense in Alcalá de Henares, upon completion of his studies, the student was submitted to a public questioning by the faculty, who could ask sympathetic questions that let him excel or tricky points. If the student passed he invited professors and friends to a party. If not, he was publicly processioned with donkey ears.

Entrance to the profession of Engineer:

• The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, also known as the Iron Ring Ceremony

Entrance into Architecture (University):

• Walk on Water: Second-year students must pass the competition to continue in the school of architecture at Florida International University in the United States

See also

• Annaprashana
• Line-crossing ceremony
• Pilgrimage
• The Seclusion of Girls at Puberty

References

• Bell, B.J. (2003). "The rites of passage and outdoor education: Critical concerns for effective programming." The Journal of Experiential Education, 26, 1, pp. 41–50.
• Cushing, P.J. (1998). "Competing the cycle of transformation: Lessons from the rites of passage model." Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Experiential Education, 9, 5, 7–12.
• Turner, V. (1967). "Betwixt and between: the liminal period in rites de passage," Forest of symbols: aspects of the Ndembu ritual, Cornell UP, Ithaca, pp. 23–59.

Further reading

• Hatzopoulos, Miltiades B., "Macedonian Cults" (as "Cultes et rites de passage en Macédoine"), Athens & Paris, 1994
• Devine, A.M., "Review: Macedonian Cults", The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 46, No. 2 (1996), pp. 279–281, Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
• Padilla, Mark William (editor), "Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece: Literature, Religion, Society", Bucknell University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8387-5418-X

External links

• Rites of Passage in Africa
• A list of rites of passage and similar rituals Various ethnographic examples