Rites of passage - Definition and Overview

A rite of passage is a ritual that marks a change in a person's social or sexual status. The term was popularised by the French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957), in the early part of the twentieth century. Further theories were developed in the 1960s by Mary Douglas and Victor Turner.

Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as childbirth, menarche or other milestones within puberty, weddings, menopause, and death.

Other rites include:

• Circumcision
• Coming of age
  • Gembuku (元服) among the samurai
  • Prom/Graduation
  • Pederasty
  • Rumspringa among the Amish
  • Russ in Norway
  • Vision quest in some Native American cultures
• Initiation rites
  • Baptism
  • First Communion and First Confession (especially in Catholicism)
  • Confirmation
  • Bar mitzvah
  • Walkabout
  • Freemasonry rituals
  • hazing
• Armed forces rites:
  • U.S. Marine Crucible
  • U.S. Army Victory Forge

External link

• A list of rites of passage and similar rituals (http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/waymac/Sociology/A%20Term%201/2.%20Culture/Rituals.htm)