rite of passage

rite of passage
1. Anthropol. a ceremony performed to facilitate or mark a person's change of status upon any of several highly important occasions, as at the onset of puberty or upon entry into marriage or into a clan.
2. any important act or event that serves to mark a passage from one stage of life to another.
[1955-60]

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Introduction

      ceremonial event, existing in all historically known societies, that marks the passage from one social or religious status to another. This article describes these rites among various societies throughout the world, giving greatest attention to the most common types of rites; explains their purposes from the viewpoints of the people observing the rites; and discusses their social, cultural (cultural anthropology), and psychological significance as seen by scholars seeking to gain an understanding of human behaviour.

Nature and significance
      Many of the most important and common rites of passage are connected with the biological crises of life—birth, maturity, reproduction, and death—all of which bring changes in social status and, therefore, in the social relations of the people concerned. Other rites of passage celebrate changes that are wholly cultural, such as initiation into societies composed of people with special interests—for example, fraternities. Rites of passage are universal, and presumptive evidence from archaeology in the form of burial finds strongly suggests that they go back to very early times. The worldwide distribution of these rites long ago attracted the attention of scholars, but the first substantial interpretation of them as a class of phenomena was presented in 1909 by the French anthropologist and folklorist Arnold van Gennep (Gennep, Arnold van) (1873–1957), who coined the name rites of passage. Van Gennep saw the rites as means by which individuals are eased, without social disruption, through the difficulties of transition from one social role to another. On the basis of an extensive survey of preliterate and literate societies, van Gennep held that the rites consist of three distinguishable, consecutive elements, called in French séparation, marge, and agrégation, which may be translated as separation, transition, and reincorporation, or as preliminal, liminal, and postliminal stages (before, at, and past the threshold). The person (or persons) on whom the rites centre is first symbolically severed from his old status (social status), then undergoes adjustment to the new status during the period of transition, and is finally reincorporated in society in his new social status. Although the most commonly observed rites relate to crises in the life cycle, van Gennep saw the significance of the ceremonies as being social or cultural, celebrating important events that are primarily sociocultural or man-made rather than biological. The British anthropologist A.M. Hocart (1884–1939) held that the passage from one status to another was the result rather than the cause of these ceremonies; thus the rites both induced and allayed personal and social stress rather than merely allaying it. Basing his views on circumstances in a few ancient civilizations, Hocart thought that all rites of passage were based on the model of ritual of investiture of kings, in which symbolic killing and rebirth of the new ruler, and sometimes actual killing of the old, were required. Later scholarship has shown that symbolic death and rebirth into the new status are common forms of symbolism in rites of passage of various kinds and that the symbolic killing and rebirth of rulers is therefore not appropriately viewed as the prototype of all rites.

Functions
      Modern scholars in the social sciences characteristically accept the views of van Gennep about the social and psychological significance of rites of passage; that is, passage rites are seen to have positive value for the individual in relieving stress at times when great rearrangements in his life occur, such as are brought by coming of age, entering marriage, becoming a parent, or at the death of a close relative, and in providing instruction in and approval of his new roles. The rites are seen also to be socially supporting in various ways. Such support includes roles of the rites in preventing social disruption by relieving the psychological stress of the individuals concerned; providing clear instruction to all members of societies to continue life in normal fashion with new social alignments; the affirmation they provide of social and moral values expressed and thus sanctioned as part of the ceremonies; and the social unity they foster by joint acts and joint expression of social values. During most of man's history, rites of passage have generally been religious events; that is, they have been conducted in a religious framework and regarded as religious acts and hence possessed special authority. From the viewpoint of modern social science, however, their nature is generally seen as being fundamentally secular. Mankind gives social attention to all events regarded as being socially important. Until recent times, religion was intimately connected with most aspects of life, and events of such social importance as the changes in society that the rites celebrate were most frequently incorporated in the system of religious belief and act. The tendency of recent decades toward secularization of rites of passage strongly suggests that the primary significance of most rites is social or secular rather than religious. In the modern, scientifically minded nations of the world many rites of passage, such as rites of initiation into fraternal and honorary societies are wholly secular; others have only small elements of religion, and even marriage may be a wholly secular rite.

      One of the primary functions of rites of passage that is often overlooked by interpreters, perhaps because it appears obvious, is the role of the rites in providing entertainment. Passage rites and other religious events have in the past been the primary socially approved means of participating in pleasurable activities, and religion has been a primary vehicle for art, music, song, dance, and other forms of aesthetics.

      From its beginning, the study of the significance of rites as a class of phenomena has attempted to account for similarities and differences in the rites among societies of the world. The similarities are striking and doubtless reflect the close similarity in ways of human thought. Modern attempts to account for similarities and differences have generally given little attention to and reached no consensus concerning the nature of the innate psychological factors involved in the genesis of the rites. Attempts to understand rites of passage have instead generally been sociocultural interpretations that view the rites as part of an integrated sociocultural system, the man-made part of human life. Religion and rites of passage are thus seen as elements in this system that affect and are affected by other elements in the system such as means of gaining a livelihood and the manner in which society is aligned in groups. Most modern analysts accordingly have interpreted both differences and similarities in rites of passage on the basis of their sociocultural context. The inventive and symbolic capabilities of mankind are treated as a constant factor, and analytic attention is given to differences and similarities in the sociocultural contexts in which rites are found. In attempting to understand why marriage is an extremely elaborate rite in one society and very simple in another society, for example, scholars have looked to the social order and to the manner of gaining a livelihood to judge the relative importance of the enduring unions of spouses. Following the view that culture, including the social order, composes a coherent, inclusive system, modern scholarship has, in short, most commonly interpreted rites of passage in terms of their functional significance in the social system.

      The significance or stated goals of rites of passage as these exist in the minds of the actors are regarded as quite inadequate for gaining an understanding of the functional significance of the rites. Very often, rites of passage are said to have goals such as dispatching the spirit of a dead person to another world, protecting the newborn, the new adult, and the newlywed from evil influences. Often the explicit goals of the rites have been forgotten and their continuation is a matter of following tradition, so that means have become goals. Although scholars have noted the explicit goals of these rites, they have characteristically given greatest emphasis to inferring functional significances that are not obvious to the actors in the rites. In so doing they have broadened their investigations from observations of the symbolism of rites to include prominently all of the behaviour during the rites and their social contexts, learning the social identities of the performers, and their relationships to other performers and the entire society.

Classifications of rites
      No scheme of classification of passage rites has met with general acceptance, although many names have been given to distinguishable types of rites and to elements of rites. The name purification (purification rite) ceremonies, for example, refers to an element of ritual that is very common in rites of passage and also in other kinds of religious events. In most instances, the manifest goal of purification is to prepare the individual for communication with the supernatural, but purification in rites of passage may also be seen to have the symbolic significance of erasing an old status in preparation for a new one (see also Purification rites and customs (purification rite)).

      Other names that have been given to passage rites often overlap. Life-cycle ceremonies and crisis rites are usually synonymous terms referring to rites connected with the biological crises of life, but some modern scholars have included among crisis rites ritual observances aimed at curing serious illnesses. Ceremonies of social transformation and of religious transformation (for both see this section, below) overlap and similarly overlap crisis rites. Religious transformations, such as baptism and rites of ordination, always involve social transformations; social transformations such as at coming-of-age and induction into office may also bring new religious statuses, and life-cycle ceremonies similarly may or may not involve changes in religious statuses. It is nevertheless sometimes useful to distinguish the various rites by these names.

Life-cycle ceremonies
      Life-cycle ceremonies are found in all societies, although their relative importance varies. The ritual counterparts of the biological crises of the life cycle include numerous kinds of rites celebrating childbirth, ranging from baby “showers” to pregnancy rites to rites observed at the actual time of childbirth and, as exemplified by Baptism and the fading Christian rite of Churching of Women, a ceremony of thanksgiving for mothers soon after childbirth. These rites involve the parents as well as the child and in some societies include the couvade, which in its so-called classic form centres ritual attention at childbirth upon the father rather than the mother. At this time the father follows elaborate rules of ritual procedure that may include taking to bed, simulating labour pains, and symbolically enacting the successful birth of a child. In all societies some ritual observances surround childbirth, marriage, and death, although the degree of elaboration of the rites varies greatly even among societies of comparable levels of cultural development. Rites at coming-of-age are the most variable in time in the life span and may be present or absent. In some societies such rites are observed for only one sex, are elaborate for one sex and simple for the other, or are not observed for either sex. Characteristically, rites at coming-of-age are not generally observed in the modern industrial civilizations or, as in the Jewish Bar Mitzva and the Protestant confirmation of the United States, exist today more or less as vestiges of formerly important religious rites. Among the elaborate civilizations of Asia, rites at coming-of-age have similarly waned in recent times. The elaborate rites observed a century ago in Japan when young men and young women reached social maturity are only rarely observed today and are virtually unknown to the general population. Death (death rite) is given social attention in all societies, and the observances are generally religious in intent and import. In societies that fear dead bodies the deceased may be abandoned, but they are nevertheless the focus of ritual attention. Most commonly, rites at death are elaborate, and they include clearly all of the stages of separation, transition, and reincorporation first noted by van Gennep. See death rite.

Ceremonies of social transformation
      Ceremonies of social transformation include all of the life-cycle ceremonies, since these involve social transitions for the subjects of the ritual and also for other persons. When a man or woman dies, for example, he assumes a new social role as a spirit that may be socially important to the living; the bereaved spouse becomes a widow or widower; and the children have an unnamed but changed status as lacking one parent. A vast number of rites of social transformation, such as rites of initiation into common-interest societies, have no direct or primary connection with biological changes. These are abundant in the United States and European nations, usually as secular ceremonies. In primitive societies, rites of this kind mark induction into age-graded societies, principally limited to males, and a variety of common-interest societies such as warrior societies, curing societies (special groups whose purpose is to cure illnesses), and graded men's societies that are hierarchically ranked in prestige. Whether hereditary or achieved by appointment or election, assumption of important office in various kinds of societies is often observed by elaborate ritual. Any other events involving changes in social status tend to become the subjects of institutionalized ritual, which is then a prerequisite for the new status. Common examples are initiation ceremonies of college fraternities, sororities, and honorary societies; adult fraternal societies, and social groups of other kinds centred on common interests. Other social changes of importance that apply to a substantial number of people but do not involve initiation into organized social groups are also given ritual attention. Common among these are graduation exercises, festivities marking retirement from work, and various kinds of award ceremonies.

Ceremonies of religious transformation
      Religious-transformation ceremonies signal changes in religious statuses, which may be matters of the greatest importance to the people. Performing ritual such as making sacrifices (sacrifice) and offerings may be required in the normal course of life, and these acts may be regarded as conferring a new religious status or state of grace. Sacrifices are a frequent feature of rites of passage, and for important ceremonies such as coronations and funerals of rulers, have sometimes required the sacrifice of many human beings (see sacrifice). Among the laity, entry into a religious society or the assumption of any other new religious role is customarily an event celebrated by rites such as those of baptism and confirmation. Among professional religious personnel, the achievement of any distinct status of specialization is ordinarily observed by rites corresponding to the Christian rites of ordination—the rites through which religious functionaries become entitled to exercise their respective functions. As with other rites of passage, these rites may be simple or complex, and their degree of complexity may generally be easily seen as reflecting the religious and social importance of the newly acquired status. A single element of an elaborate rite in one society, such as circumcision or the dressing of the hair in a distinctive way, may in another society be the central or sole event of rites of either social or religious transformation. These ceremonies may, accordingly, be called rites of circumcision or be identified by the name of the style of hairdress.

Other ceremonies
      The term rites of passage is occasionally applied to institutionalized rites for curing serious illness and, rarely, to cyclic ceremonies such as harvest festivals. No new social or religious status is ordinarily gained by recovery from illness or participation in harvest rites, however, and these ceremonies have probably been included among the rites of passage because of similarities in their ritual procedures. In some societies, recovery from a very critical illness is regarded as a divine sign that the erstwhile invalid should assume the role of a religious specialist, but rites of ordination are quite separate. Some elements of ceremonies pertaining to changes in the seasons may be seen as incorporating acts of separation and incorporation, symbolically saying goodbye to the old season and welcoming the new, but these are not customarily called rites of passage. Although clearly denoting a change in social status, divorce has rarely been regarded as a rite of passage. Festive observances at this time are perhaps common in some societies, but they are often informal practices of the individual or simple acts of local custom, such as discarding wedding rings, that are not institutionalized in the entire society. The absence of divorce from the conventional roster of rites of passage illustrates an outstanding characteristic of this class of rites: all celebrate events that are either socially approved or, like death and illness, unavoidable. Rites of passage that signal the assumption of social statuses disapproved by society are both out of keeping with the prevailing interpretation of the rites as being socially supportive and would broaden them to cover such events as trials by jury and commitment to prison for serious crimes.

Symbolic aspects of ceremonies
      Whatever their subclassification, elaborate rites of passage are commonly rich in symbolism (religious symbolism and iconography) that prominently includes representations of the states of separation and transition and, especially, insignia of the new status. Most common among these markers of new status are alterations (body modifications and mutilations) and embellishments of visible or invisible parts of the body, distinctive garments (dress) and bodily decorations, and insignias corresponding to symbols of office. All parts of the body that may be altered or embellished without ordinarily causing serious disability have served as the symbols of social statuses and have been elements of rites of passage. Outstanding among these insignias are special styles of hairdress, clothing, and ornaments; the filing, staining, and removal of teeth; the wearing of ornaments in pierced ears, noses, or lips; tattoos and, among dark-skinned people upon whom tattoos would not be visible, their counterpart of scarification, which produces designs in relief; and circumcision or other genital operations (see religious dress).

      Several motifs or themes of symbolism commonly recur among societies widely separated from each other geographically and culturally. One such theme symbolizes death and rebirth into the new status. Initiates may be ceremonially killed and then made symbolically to act like infants who, during the rites, are made to mature into their new statuses. Another common form of symbolism makes use of doors or other portals that signify entry into the new social domain. Ordeals are a rather common feature of coming-of-age ceremonies for both males and females, and they are also used in rites of initiation into men's societies of various kinds. Success in passing the ordeals is customary and signifies mastery of the roles that are to be assumed.

      A universal feature of rites of passage is the proscription of certain kinds of ordinary behaviour. Sexual continence is a common rule, as is the prohibition of ordinary work such as farming, hunting, and fishing. Many rites prohibit certain behaviour or prescribe the reverse of ordinary behaviour. Among Indians of the western United States, for example, a taboo against scratching the body with the fingers was common during ritual periods. In other societies, ritual behaviour required that the subjects of ritual sit in a remarkable fashion, wear articles of clothing inside out or backward, or wear the clothing of the opposite sex. These acts all may be seen as dramatizations, by contrast, of the events that they celebrate, thereby making them memorable.

A representative example
      Rites of passage marking very important events customarily include all of the three stages described by van Gennep. A representative example is afforded by the traditional rites surrounding childbirth as these were commonly observed in Japan until recent years. Observances began when a woman learned she was pregnant. Partly for stated reasons of promoting health and partly for supernaturalistic reasons, she thenceforth abstained from certain foods and ate others. During the fifth month of pregnancy she donned a special girdle, ordinarily procured from a Buddhist temple and supernaturally blessed. Relatives offered prayers for the well-being of the woman and her child. When birth seemed imminent, she was isolated from all other persons except the women who attended her and remained in isolation for a fixed number of days after parturition. This period was most commonly 33 days, which was divided into stages preceeding from severe restriction of her acts to final complete resumption of all normal activities. She had at first to follow a number of special rules of diet and could not perform normal household tasks. During the period of isolation, the mother was regarded as polluted from the flow of blood during childbirth and therefore dangerous to other people and dangerous or offensive to supernatural beings of the Shintō religious pantheon. She could not make the usual offerings or say prayers before the household shrines to Shintō gods or have any other kind of contact with them. To avoid offending the sun goddess, her clothing and that of her child when laundered could never be hung in direct sunlight to dry but instead were placed in the shadows of the eaves of the house. For the same reason, she covered her head with a cloth when she stepped outside the house near the end of the period of isolation. Water and cloths used in washing the mother after parturition were considered to be polluted and were buried in the ground beneath the floor of the room of confinement. After a fixed number of days passed, the mother was permitted to resume bathing and again perform some but not all of her ordinary work in the house. Other restrictions on behaviour were removed at fixed times, and when the full period passed, the mother and her female aides performed a ceremony of purification (purification rite) by sprinkling salt on the mother and on the floors of the dwelling. The beginning of a new, normal period free from pollution also was symbolized by kindling a new fire in the household cooking stove. Now ready to return to normal life, the mother ate a ceremonial meal with other members of the family and resumed ordinary relationships with supernatural beings and other human members of the community.

Rites of passage in the context of the social system
      Most of the scholarly interpretations of rites of passage of the 20th century have considered their relation to the social system and have seen the functional significance of the rites as a contribution to the maintenance of society as a system of congruent parts. Explicit or implicit in this line of reasoning is the idea of equilibrium found in any scientific theory concerned with systems. For the system to operate effectively, its elements must be mutually supportive or congruous, and the system is then described as being in a state of equilibrium. Social systems embrace a fixed number of people and a fixed number of roles. Changes in either the number of the people or the proportions of statuses disturb social equilibrium. When a child is born, a new member is added to society; the social behaviour and statuses of its parents change, and these changes also affect other members of society. Other social changes that are the subjects of passage rites similarly disrupt the state of social equilibrium. Rites of passage are seen to foster the development of a new state of equilibrium in adjustment to the social changes upon which the rites focus. By means of the rites, members of society are informed of the new social circumstances and at the same time give social approval to them. Individuals upon whom the rites focus are assured of success in their new roles by the ritual observances and are given psychological reassurance in a number of other ways. They and all other members of society are instructed by the ritual enactment of their new social relations to return to normal behaviour incorporating the added or lost personnel and the added, lost, or changed social statuses. The same general kind of reasoning is applied to various other religious ceremonies. The anthropologists Eliot D. Chapple and Carleton S. Coon (Coon, Carleton) interpret all rites of passage and other group rites as “rites of intensification.” Calling special attention to the ritual depiction of habitual relationships for the statuses involved, Chapple and Coon state that this behaviour “has the effect of reinforcing or intensifying their habitual relations, and thus serves to maintain their conditioned response . . . In the technical (physiological) sense, the performance of these rites prevents the extinction of habits . . . to which the individual has been trained.”

      Closely related to the function of passage rites in restoring social equilibrium, in the anthropologists' interpretation, are a group of additional effects or functions, some of which apply first to the individuals whose statuses change and, through their behaviour, to the entire social group. Other functional effects apply directly to the entire society. By allaying the anxiety of individuals who are undergoing change, social disruption is avoided. Rites of passage characteristically give assurance of mastery of the new roles and often include instruction in the new roles. In the many societies in which statuses and roles are clearly distinguished by sex, the rites symbolically emphasize these differences, thereby instructing the initiates and aiding them in sexual identification. The anxiety and potential social disruption caused by death and the grief of the bereaved are similarly held in check. Funeral rites customarily point up grief and then firmly instruct the bereaved to resume normal behaviour that is not disruptive to others. The joint performance of rites and the joint expression of moral and other social values that are included among ritual acts may be seen as directly promoting group solidarity through communion with one's fellows and affirmation or reaffirmation of rules and ideals that foster social harmony.

      Rites of passage and all other group rites are seen to be socially supporting in still another implicit way. The joint rites are customarily a rehearsal or dramatization, with supernatural sanction, of a part or all of the social order of the society. Relatives have special roles that are congruent with, or enactments of, their positions in normal social life, and the entire social hierarchy may be on display during the rites through the assignment of ritual roles. Thus statuses of kinship, caste, social equality, and hierarchy are all seen to be reinforced by dramatic presentation of them.

      Accepting this group of interpretations of the social significance of rites of passage, anthropologists have also attempted to understand variations in the degree of elaboration of rites of passage among societies of the world. A fundamental assumption is the commonplace idea that the greater the importance of a social change the greater the ritual attention will be. The birth, marriage, and death of a ruler obviously are more important to the entire society than these events in the life of a commoner. The importance of such events is not always obvious, however, and their relative importance is often difficult to see when different societies are compared. Rites of marriage, for example, may be very simple or very elaborate in different societies of the same economic base and comparable levels of cultural development. Recourse to consideration of features of the social order has allowed a reasonable explanation of the differences. Marriage rites in matrilineal societies, for example, which are organized into subgroups primarily upon a principle of descent through female lines only, tend to be simple, and divorce in these societies is also simple. Marriage rites in patrilineal societies (in which descent is through male lines), however, tend to be elaborate, and divorce initiated by females is difficult.

      In matrilineal (family) societies, the social core is composed of groups of male and female relatives united by female lines (kinship), which are economically distinct from other groups and self-sufficient. Where the matrilineal principle of organization is strong, the role of the husband and father, who belongs to a matrilineal group different from that of his wife, is not that of economic provider for his wife and children. Instead, he is the economic mainstay for his sister and her children, and his contact with his wife may be limited to spending nights with her. The brothers or other male relatives of a mother not only provide economically for her children but also assume what is elsewhere the role of the father in socializing children. Enduring unions of marriage are not vital to such matrilineal societies. If marriages end in divorce, the matrilineal ordering of society assures approved social identification, economic support, and affective ties for the children and their mother and also assures continuance of the society as long as males are available as procreators. In patrilineal societies, however, the role of the mother, who is the outsider in the group, is vital for the birth and rearing of the children, and she and her children are dependent upon her husband for economic support. Strong sanctions are placed upon marriages in these societies to help ensure lasting unions. Marriage ceremonies are correspondingly elaborate, often involving the transfer of property, which among some African societies is called marriage insurance for the reason that it must be returned if the marriage falls asunder.

      In societies such as those of the United States and European nations, where the important unit of kinship is ordinarily limited to the nuclear family of parents and children and where important social affiliation does not depend upon descent through one sex of progenitors, enduring unions of marriage are also vitally important. Rites of passage at marriage traditionally have been required by law as well as by the church, and many other sanctions on lasting marriages are imposed by laws concerning divorce, communal property, and the care of children. The bride and groom who have undergone the whole series of traditional rites of passage from engagement parties to the religious ceremony may reasonably be seen as more firmly married than couples united by a simple civil ceremony (see also family).

Psychological aspects of rites of passage
      Less scholarly attention has been given to psychological than to social or cultural aspects of rites of passage, in large part because the scholars concerned with such rites in world societies have been principally anthropologists, who lean toward sociocultural interpretations. As the foregoing discussion of passage rites in social context illustrates, psychological aspects of rites nevertheless enter strongly if often implicitly into anthropological interpretations as fundamental matters in social solidarity and social disorder. Emotional ties to kin and other members of society, personal identification with social groups and religious statuses, and commitment to religious ideology and other values are reinforced and sometimes created by rites of passage. In a realistic sense, the rites serve as blueprints for social relations and religious behaviour, making clear the acceptable ways to act and at the same time pointing up and reinforcing affective relations with other people and with the supernatural. Familial rites of ancestor worship, for example, are not only reinforcements of familial solidarity but also have psychological value in reinforcing emotional ties among relatives.

      Psychological interpretations of passage rites have given greatest emphasis to their value in allaying personal anxiety. A recurrent feature of the rites are acts of magic that assure that the outcome of the endeavour will be successful. In the words of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (Malinowski, Bronisław) these acts serve symbolically and psychologically “to bridge over the dangerous gaps in every important pursuit or critical situation” that exist because of man's lack of control of the universe. By such magical means as miniature boats floated in streams or carried away by the tide, the dead are shown symbolically to go successfully to the other world, and childbirth and successful maturation are similarly depicted magically. The subjects of rites of passage frequently act out their future roles to the approval of all others. Numerous acts of magic that are not essential to changes in social status may be incorporated in rites of passage and may be seen to give psychological assurance relating to the future life of the individual. Traditional Japanese practices at childbirth, for example, required that when a girl was born, the placenta be buried in the ground outside the entrance to the dwelling to insure that the girl, when mature, marry in normal fashion and leave the family. When a boy was born, the placenta was buried inside the house to ensure that he remain at home when mature. The ordeal that a young man or young woman must often undergo during rites of coming-of-age may similarly be seen to provide psychological assurance of success in the new status. Ordeals of this kind are characteristically uncomfortable or frightening, but they are events that any human being ordinarily can endure.

      The psychotherapeutic value of passage rites surrounding events in which stress may be acute, such as childbirth, death, and serious illness, is clearly apparent and essentially follows the principles of modern secular psychotherapy. The subject is made the centre of concentrated attention by many people, is given reassuring evidence of their regard for him, and, by means of magic and the intervention of supernatural beings, is assured of a successful outcome. These events are carried out on a high emotional pitch, which gives them added force. When anxiety is induced by religious beliefs themselves, such as by ideas that if ritual acts are not performed calamitous results will follow, the rites of passage may be said both to create and to allay anxiety.

      Where particular social statuses have special honour and prestige, the mere existence of these statuses offers opportunities for gaining psychological satisfaction, and the requirements for gaining these statuses serve to guide behaviour in socially approved channels that offer psychological satisfaction.

      Other interpretations of psychological aspects of passage rites have relied upon ideas derived from or inspired by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Freud, Sigmund) (1856–1939). These have sometimes concerned the symbolism involved in the rites and, in anthropological interpretations, have dealt with both Freudian ideas of symbols and the social order. The psychologist Bruno Bettelheim (Bettelheim, Bruno) has interpreted cicatrization (inducement of scars) of males in rites at coming-of-age as symbolic wounds indicating subconscious male envy of the vagina, the counterpart of Freud's idea of penis envy. A psychologically oriented anthropologist J.M. Whiting, and others have combined sociological and psychoanalytic theories in attempting to explain why male initiation ceremonies are conducted in some societies and not in others. Harsh rites, sometimes including genital operations, are held to be correlated with societies in which infant males have long and intimate contact with their mothers, and husbands are prohibited from sexual intercourse with their wives for a period of two years or more. The long and exclusive relationship (Oedipus complex) between mother and son is assumed to lead to strong emotional dependence upon the mother by the son, which becomes potentially disruptive at the time the son reaches puberty. The harsh rites are seen to break the bond of dependency and avoid potential social disruption that might otherwise result from discord between son and father at this time.

Rites of passage in the context of the religious system
      Certain passage rites represent first and foremost transformations in the religious statuses or circumstances of the people concerned. As already noted, rites of passage are customary upon the assumption of a new status as a religious professional. During most of man's history, however, rites of passage have carried among their implications a change to a new religious state for the ordinary members of society as well as for the professional religious person. Among the culturally advanced societies of the world with orders of priests, ideas of the significance of symbolism in passage rites may be elaborate and sophisticated, representing the rites as different states of grace or, as in Hinduism, cyclic states involving death and rebirth. In many societies, one is not fully or properly a human being until he has undergone the rites of passage appropriate for his age and sex. In some societies, fully human status is not reached until the rite of Baptism has been performed, and children who die before that time may be interred with special rites in places separate from those of the dead who have been baptized. When passage rites are religious ceremonies, as has generally been the circumstance until modern times, some state of sacrament or divine blessing, vaguely or clearly defined, is entailed. At the time of death, rites of passage placing the deceased in the realm of the supernatural customarily have been required. Symbolism in many rites of passage denotes communion with the supernatural. In common with many other kinds of religious events, then, passage rites relate the individual and the society to the sacred world, conferring benefit upon him thereby (see also sacred).

      Rites of passage frequently have ethical import of value for the maintenance of social equilibrium. Where ethical or moral codes and religious beliefs are intimately connected or identified as one and the same, as in Christianity, Judaism, and Islām, the role of religious beliefs and acts may be seen to have strong value as social sanctions since the moral injunctions apply to human relations as well as to man's relations with the supernatural world. All societies have moral or ethical codes, rules of what is appropriate and inappropriate in human relations, and these are enforced by various means. Rites of passage, as noted above, commonly incorporate statements or dramatizations of moral values, and rites at coming-of-age often give moral instruction in highly explicit terms. No necessary or inherent connection exists, however, between morality and religious beliefs. Any serious breach of proper moral conduct results in the imposition of a network of sanctions, many of them secular. In some societies, religious beliefs have little bearing on morality in relations with one's fellow men, although violations of rules applying to relations with supernatural beings and supernatural forces may be regarded as bringing inevitable punishment or misfortune through the supernatural agency. Whenever morality is a part of religious precepts, the direct sanctioning force of passage rites stressing moral rules may be powerful and important to the maintenance of society. In other societies, the ethical import of passage rites and other features of religion may operate less directly. An example is provided by societies that revere but do not deify ancestors. Any breach of morality reflects unfavourably upon the ancestors, who may undertake no action of censure but nevertheless serve as a sanctioning force that is reinforced by death rites.

Primary rites of passage
      In simple, primitive societies dependent for subsistence upon hunting and gathering, in which social groups are small and specialization in labour is limited to distinctions by sex and age, no social statuses may exist except those of child, adult, male, female, and disembodied spirit. Among primitive societies somewhat more advanced technologically and culturally, however, specialized groups based upon common interests appear, and these customarily require rites of induction or initiation. In culturally sophisticated societies, with elaborate divisions of labour, social statuses of leadership and specialized occupation are multiple. If all societies of the world, preliterate and literate, are considered, the most commonly recurrent rites of passage are those connected with the normal but critical events in the human life span—birth, attainment of physical maturity, mating and reproduction, and death.

Birth rites
      Rites surrounding the birth of a child are often a complex of distinct rituals that prescribe different behaviour on the part of the mother, the father, other relatives, nonfamilial members of the society, and with respect to the newborn. Observances may begin when pregnancy is first noted and may continue until the time of delivery, when the full rite of passage is observed, and for a variable period of time afterward. In many simple societies and in European societies of the past, the expectant mother is isolated from other members of society at this time for the stated reason that the blood that flows during childbirth has inherently harmful qualities. Where this belief is strong, the classic couvade may be practiced. Regions of the world in which this practice was formerly common include the Amazon Basin of aboriginal South America, Corsica, Spain, among the Basques of France and Spain, and among various societies of Asia. Old ethnological writings have created the impression that ritual attention is limited entirely to the father. Later investigations have made it appear doubtful that the mother in any society is free from ritual requirements. In many societies, rites that have been called the couvade are observed by both parents. The anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber (Kroeber, A.L.) (1876–1960) reported that among most of the many tribes of aboriginal California, rites at childbirth were much alike for both mother and father. To prevent harm to their child and to other people during the ritual period, the parents observed food taboos; ate in seclusion; avoided contact with other people; did as little work as possible; and refrained from various other acts of ordinary behaviour that included cooking, touching tools, and eating salt, meat, and fish. Women often were under injunctions to scratch themselves only with a stick or a bone for fear that their nails at this time would leave permanent scars on their bodies.

      Practices of sympathetic and contagious magic relating to birth and the later well-being of both child and mother are abundant and diverse. Among Indians of aboriginal British Columbia, the mother inserted a smooth beachstone, an eel, or other slippery object under her garment at the neckline, permitting it to slide to the ground to symbolize and insure quick and successful childbirth. In societies of Southeast Asia and Indonesia, religious specialists dressed as women simulated successful delivery. Rites directed toward the newborn similarly symbolize or ensure health and well-being and, after some days, weeks, or months have passed, often include Baptism or other ritual acts that introduce the child to supernatural beings. Both child and mother are often regarded as being defenseless at this time, and many ritual acts have the purpose of protecting them from harmful supernatural beings and forces. In Southeast Asia and Indonesia, a practice called mother roasting, which requires that the mother be placed for some days over or near a fire, appears once to have had the goal of protecting the mother from such evil influences. This practice survives today in altered form in the rural Philippines, where it is regarded as having therapeutic value.

      Native explanations of the ritual procedures at childbirth reflect beliefs of a mystic affinity between parent and child, and many of the prescriptions have the manifest goals of preventing harm to the infant until it is able to fend for itself. Among South American Indians practicing the classic couvade, this belief of affinity between father and child relates to the soul, which is not fully transmitted to the child until the end of the ritual period.

      In addition to the social (communal) and psychological significances of birth rites already noted, scholars have offered interpretations of these ceremonies as reinforcing familial ties. The classic couvade has been seen by Malinowski as a sympathetic symbolic stressing of the relationship between the husband and the wife and her kin, which is instituted when the child is born. In addition to serving as a means of allaying husbandly anxiety over the welfare of the wife, the practices of the couvade establish social paternity, which, in turn, promotes familial and societal solidarity.

Initiation rites
      The most prevalent of rites of initiation among societies of the world are those observed at coming-of-age. These have frequently been called puberty rites, but, as van Gennep argued long ago, this name is inappropriate. Puberty among females is often defined as the time of onset of menses (the menstrual flow), but no such clearly identifiable point exists in the sexual maturation of males. Moreover, the age at which rites of attaining maturity are observed vary greatly from society to society, going far beyond the normal range of years at which sexual maturity is attained. The definition of maturation is thus seen to be largely social or cultural rather than solely biological.

      The full range of stages of passage rites is often followed in rituals at coming-of-age. Ordeals (ordeal) or other tests of manhood and womanhood are also common. Some of these practices in preliterate societies seem incomprehensible or absurd until their nature as evidence of qualification for the new social statuses is understood. Among the Bemba tribe of Africa, for example, girls were required to catch water insects with their mouths and to kill a tethered chicken by sitting on its head. circumcision or other genital operations are also a fairly common feature of rites celebrating the attainment of maturity. Although most commonly applying to males, genital operations are performed on females in a few societies. It seems quite clear that circumcision and other alterations of the sexual organs have not until modern times been regarded as therapeutic surgery. These operations may have psychological significance following Freudian lines of interpretation, but it seems clear that they are also significant as insignia of social status. Where circumcision is the practice for male initiates, the uncircumcised male is not a full-fledged adult. It may be remembered that at this time other parts of the body are also modified, by incision, piercing, filing, tattooing, and by other kinds of practices that are not painful. Circumcision may in fact have no direct relation to the attainment of sexual maturity. In native Samoa, boys were circumcised at any age from three to 20.

      An outstanding feature of rites at coming-of-age, which is generally less prominent or absent from other rites of passage, is their emphasis upon instruction in behaviour appropriate to the status of adults. Instruction in dress, speech, deportment, and morality may be given over a period of months. Very commonly, instruction is first given at this time in matters of religion that have heretofore been kept secret, and initiates may at this time be expected or required to commune with the supernatural, sometimes by means of revelatory trances induced by fasting, violent physical exertion, or the consumption of plant substances that produce hallucinations or otherwise alter the sensibilities.

      Separation of male initiates from their mothers and all other females is also common, and ritual events may dramatize the transition from a world of women and children to one that is ideally male. Symbolism of these rites dramatizes the separation in such ways as by requiring the young men temporarily to wear the clothing of women and by rigid exclusion of all females from participation in the rites.

      Among the technologically and scientifically advanced societies of the world, initiation rites have become increasingly secular. The great religions of the world all included rites at coming-of-age, but for much of the modern population of these nations the rites either are not observed or are simply vestiges of the old religious ceremonies. The most common rites of initiation are predominantly or wholly secular ceremonies conducted to celebrate such events as entry into a common-interest association or graduation from school. Rites of initiation such as into age-graded groups or common-interest societies follow essentially the same pattern as those at coming-of-age, and their simplicity or elaboration may be correlated with the importance of the new statuses.

      As seen by social analysts, the significance of initiation rites of all kinds is the same as that of other rites of passage. Some emphasis is given to their didactic value and to their significance in sex-role identification. One question that has not been answered is why rites at coming-of-age are so poorly developed today among the technologically advanced societies of the world. Many factors, including changed views of the nature of the universe and changed social conditions, appear to have contributed to the decline of rites of passage. The supernaturalism traditionally present in the rites is no longer acceptable to many people, and in the United States and parts of Europe the association of adult status with sexual maturity as expressed in the term puberty rites has been unwelcome, a matter that should be excluded from notice rather than celebrated. Probably far more important in discouraging the rites has been the extreme variation in these nations in the age of social maturity. In the United States the ages differ at which one may legally drive a car, enter marriage, own and control property, buy alcoholic drinks and tobacco, enter military service, and vote; and in some of these matters the ages differ from state to state. The demands of modern civilization have, moreover, lengthened the age of social maturity, the time at which one is an economically productive member of society, and, dependent upon the number of years of formal education, have produced great variation in the age of full social maturity. The social and psychological value of rites of coming-of-age in making the transition to adulthood appears to be substantial, but modern cultural circumstances seem incompatible with the conduct of such rites.

Marriage rites
      It is assumed by anthropologists that marriage is one of the earliest social institutions invented by man, and, as already noted, rites of marriage are observed in every historically known society. These rites vary from extremes of elaboration to utmost simplicity, and they may be secular events or religious ceremonies. Subclasses of rites of marriage, named and unnamed, exist in many societies, beginning with ceremonies of betrothal that require complex formalities of transfer and exchange of goods, which are often regarded as compensation to the bride's kin group for their loss of the bride. Ceremonies of dramatic, sham “capture” of the bride by the groom and his relatives and friends have been common in both preliterate and literate societies. Marriage in these societies is seen by social analysts as a cooperative liaison between two different groups of kin, between which some feelings of hostility exist. Ceremonies of token capture are conducted even when betrothal and all other arrangements for marriage have long been completed to the expressed satisfaction of both sides, and the sham captures are interpreted as socially sanctioned channels for the expression and relief of feelings of hostility between the two kin groups. In some historically known societies of Africa, such sham battles between kin of brides and grooms may occur, with full societal approval, for years after a marriage during any kind of religious rite.

      Like rites at coming-of-age, ceremonies at marriage have often included clearly visible insignia of the new social status, in such forms as wedding rings, distinctive hair dress and garments, and tattoos, ornaments, or other embellishments that are regarded also as being decorative. Traditionally, preliminary rites have often provided instruction in the wifely role. Such instruction might be informal or conducted as a part of ritual. Rites of marriage proper also often give instruction through mimicry, dancing, and other symbolic acts that dramatically depict the woman's role in society, expressing her economic and social obligations and privileges with reference to her children, husband, other relatives, and still other members of society. Tests of maturity and rites with the purpose of promoting fertility have also commonly been included.

      In addition to sharing the functional significances of other passage rites, marriage ceremonies may be seen especially to stress social bonds between husband and wife and their kin groups. In most societies and during most of human history, romantic love has not been the means by which spouses are selected. Convention, often strongly sanctioned, has limited marriage to only certain classes of people. Mutual attraction between the spouses has been a matter of little or no importance. The importance of marriage with respect to spouses, children, other kin, and the orderly maintenance of society is readily inferable. Rites of marriage place a sanction on unions of marriage that may be very powerful and thus serve as both a means of conducting an orderly and satisfying human life and also as sanctions for the orderly maintenance of society. A general correlation may be seen between the degree of elaboration of marriage rites and the social importance of enduring marriages in the society in question. Where, as in some of the large, industrial nations of the world, marriage rites are simple and sometimes secular, a host of other sanctions operate similarly to foster lasting unions.

Death rites
      All human societies have beliefs in souls (soul) or spirits and an afterlife, and all conduct rituals when people die. See death rite.

Edward Norbeck

Additional Reading
Arnold van Gennep, Les Rites de passage (1909; Eng. trans., The Rites of Passage, 1960), is a pioneering study and standard work on passage rites. D.M. Schneider and K. Gough (eds.), Matrilineal Kinship (1961), is also, in comparison, a discussion of patrilineal kinship. Bruno Bettelheim, Symbolic Wounds (1954), is a Freudian-inspired work interpreting ritual acts of circumcision and other genital operations. E.D. Chapple and C.S. Coon, Principles of Anthropology (1942), has useful information on social interaction, social equilibrium and disruption, and the role of rites of passage in restoring equilibrium. J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (1907–15), is a classic work that discusses rites of passage and many other features of religion. A.M. Hocart, Social Origins (1954), is an interesting interpretive work although somewhat dated. Frank W. Young, Initiation Ceremonies (1965), concerns rites of coming-of-age, interpreting their significance in relation to the social roles of males and females and the organization of social groups.

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Universalium. 2010.

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