Anthropological theory of "rites of passage"

As species we are all born human, yet the journey we take on the passage of life defines us as individuals. Our lives are an array of moments of secular and spiritual change. Regardless of their importance, in both contexts, these occurrences represent a transition from one stage of life to another. People formalized these important moments of physical or social change by ritualization, or also known as ‘rite of passage’. The rites of passage play an important role in society. They are an efficient tool in restoring and maintaining balance within the social environment. At the same time, through rituals, they lead the initiate to social transformation. Rites of passage characteristically give assurance of mastery of the new roles and often include instruction in the new roles.

In anthropology and ethnology, the term ‘rite of passage’ first appears in 1909, in the book “The Rites of Passage” (Les rites de passage) written by the French ethnographer Arnold Van Gennep (b.1873 d.1957). He defined the rites of passage as "rites which accompany every change of place, status, social status and age.” (Turner, 1909, p. 2) These moments of transition are witnessed in various social surroundings with different moral values and practices. Given the diversity of social structures, examples of ‘rites of passage’ most frequently practised include: physiological ‘rites’ (Birth, Pregnancy, Retirement), religious ‘rites’ (Christening, Bar Mitzvah, Circumcision), academic ‘rites’ (Graduation), military ‘rites’ (Departure to Military Service), as well as many other ‘rites’ that take place in a much smaller setting. Furthermore, Van Gennep identifies the transitional process to take place in three stages: separation, transition and reincorporation. ...

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... but a communal group in which all are equal. In “Liminality and Communitas,” Turner starts by defining liminal individuals or entities as “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” (Turner 1969, p95).

Van Gennep and Turner viewed rites of passage as an essential ingredient in the rejuvenation of society. They and other social scientists generally believe that rites of passage serve to preserve social stability by easing the transition of cohorts of individuals into new status and prestige roles; in part, they are a social acknowledgement of aging. As individuals are born and age, their positions in society change. In the absence of rites of passage, society would be fraught with conflict as individuals either struggled to assert new social statuses or resisted these statuses.