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How am I defining 'Rites of Passage'?
A rite of passage is a ritual (or collection of rituals) that officially/formally moves a person (or group of people) from one social state to another.
E.G.: An adulthood ritual moves a person from the social state of 'child' to the social state of 'man' or 'woman'. (Grimes, Deeply Into the Bone, 109)
A rite of passage is meant to ingrain into the initiate their appropriate place and roll in their society (See Davis Floyd, Birth as a American Rite of Passage).
E.G.: "You area Woman Now. Which means that you do X, have X value, X responsabilities (usually including child-rearing -- Grimes, ...Bone, 109), and X freedoms".
Grimes states that about half the world's societies (though *not* half the world's population, since most of the societies in question are quite small) have adulthood initiations, and that more of them initiate their girls (58%) than do their boys (40%). (...Bone, 108). Likewise, societies in-which women 'contribute more significantly to production' are more likely to initiate their adolescents (male and female, both). (...Bone, 108).
From another dirrection, you can look at Susan Starr Sered's work (Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister), and point out that her research with Women-Dominated Religions (religions wherein the majority of practitioners, and the ritualist, are women) suggests that these religions are not concerned with Rites of Passage -- there is no need to ritually move a girl into womanhood, because her menarche does it for her (for example).
Sered says that many of the rituals (globally speaking) that pertain to pregnancy and menstruation are born out of blood taboos and the notion that there is something dangerous (dangerous to people other than the person in labour or the person menstruating, I take it she means) about the actions of birth and menstruation.
This being said, Grimes points out that much of the formative research on Rites of Passage (Turner & Van Genep, for example) are about male rites of passage, and that the 'formuala' for a rite of passage is based on patterns of specifically male initiations: A group of adolescents (boys) are ritually (and dramatically) separated from their society (and the ranks associated there-with), they are challenged, taught, and changed in some way during this period of liminality, and then they are reintegrated into their society in their new social roles as adults (men), accompanied by a big celebration.
Grimes states that women's initiatory rituals follow significantly different patterns.
They tend to be done on an individual basis, rather than in groups (as such they occur more frequently, but involve fewer initiates at a time), and tend to involve observing restrictions instead of overcoming tests of strength and skill (although holding perfectly still for twelve hours, or enduring solitary confinement definitely qualify as tests of endurance by my standards).
Grimes also suggests that women's initiation rites pertain to fertility and sexuality, while men's initiation rites pertain to skills (procreative abilities vs. productive abilities).
I wonder if Sered was using the Turner/Van Genep criteria to determine whether or not the women in the religions/societies she studied have rites of passage.
She has suggested that the rituals found in Women-Dominated Religions tend to fall under the categories of:
- Healing/Health/Preventative Medicine/Etc.
- Social and Familial relationships
- Something else I can't remember at the moment, but it was seriously outnumbered by rituals that fell into the other two categories. (Sorry, that fell apart a bit, didn't it?)
Perhaps the individual-based menarche rituals had more to do with the fact that the young woman in question was now able to become pregant (have children, be a mother, start her own family, etc) or else that, say, getting your period is not some Horrible, Un-Natural Wound that you have to hide and treat like an illness and that becoming an adult female human, despite the fact that it comes with cramps and the potential for unwanted pregnancies, and what-have you, is also a pretty cool thing that brings with it its own pleasures and delights and the chance for more independence and freedom along with the extra responsabilities...
Perhaps she saw those types of ritual as falling more under the categories of Familial Relationships or Preventative Medicine than under the heading of 'Rite of Passage' (if she defined 'Rite of Passage' in terms of the three-stage separation/liminality/reintegration that Van Genep positted and Turner made famous).
Thoughts? :-)
A rite of passage is a ritual (or collection of rituals) that officially/formally moves a person (or group of people) from one social state to another.
E.G.: An adulthood ritual moves a person from the social state of 'child' to the social state of 'man' or 'woman'. (Grimes, Deeply Into the Bone, 109)
A rite of passage is meant to ingrain into the initiate their appropriate place and roll in their society (See Davis Floyd, Birth as a American Rite of Passage).
E.G.: "You area Woman Now. Which means that you do X, have X value, X responsabilities (usually including child-rearing -- Grimes, ...Bone, 109), and X freedoms".
Grimes states that about half the world's societies (though *not* half the world's population, since most of the societies in question are quite small) have adulthood initiations, and that more of them initiate their girls (58%) than do their boys (40%). (...Bone, 108). Likewise, societies in-which women 'contribute more significantly to production' are more likely to initiate their adolescents (male and female, both). (...Bone, 108).
From another dirrection, you can look at Susan Starr Sered's work (Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister), and point out that her research with Women-Dominated Religions (religions wherein the majority of practitioners, and the ritualist, are women) suggests that these religions are not concerned with Rites of Passage -- there is no need to ritually move a girl into womanhood, because her menarche does it for her (for example).
Sered says that many of the rituals (globally speaking) that pertain to pregnancy and menstruation are born out of blood taboos and the notion that there is something dangerous (dangerous to people other than the person in labour or the person menstruating, I take it she means) about the actions of birth and menstruation.
This being said, Grimes points out that much of the formative research on Rites of Passage (Turner & Van Genep, for example) are about male rites of passage, and that the 'formuala' for a rite of passage is based on patterns of specifically male initiations: A group of adolescents (boys) are ritually (and dramatically) separated from their society (and the ranks associated there-with), they are challenged, taught, and changed in some way during this period of liminality, and then they are reintegrated into their society in their new social roles as adults (men), accompanied by a big celebration.
Grimes states that women's initiatory rituals follow significantly different patterns.
They tend to be done on an individual basis, rather than in groups (as such they occur more frequently, but involve fewer initiates at a time), and tend to involve observing restrictions instead of overcoming tests of strength and skill (although holding perfectly still for twelve hours, or enduring solitary confinement definitely qualify as tests of endurance by my standards).
Grimes also suggests that women's initiation rites pertain to fertility and sexuality, while men's initiation rites pertain to skills (procreative abilities vs. productive abilities).
I wonder if Sered was using the Turner/Van Genep criteria to determine whether or not the women in the religions/societies she studied have rites of passage.
She has suggested that the rituals found in Women-Dominated Religions tend to fall under the categories of:
- Healing/Health/Preventative Medicine/Etc.
- Social and Familial relationships
- Something else I can't remember at the moment, but it was seriously outnumbered by rituals that fell into the other two categories. (Sorry, that fell apart a bit, didn't it?)
Perhaps the individual-based menarche rituals had more to do with the fact that the young woman in question was now able to become pregant (have children, be a mother, start her own family, etc) or else that, say, getting your period is not some Horrible, Un-Natural Wound that you have to hide and treat like an illness and that becoming an adult female human, despite the fact that it comes with cramps and the potential for unwanted pregnancies, and what-have you, is also a pretty cool thing that brings with it its own pleasures and delights and the chance for more independence and freedom along with the extra responsabilities...
Perhaps she saw those types of ritual as falling more under the categories of Familial Relationships or Preventative Medicine than under the heading of 'Rite of Passage' (if she defined 'Rite of Passage' in terms of the three-stage separation/liminality/reintegration that Van Genep positted and Turner made famous).
Thoughts? :-)
