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15 OCTOBER 2010
NO 1641
Rites of passage
There are several linked factors that play a critical role in the success of initiation in so-called primitive cultural settings. One of the major factors recognized is the communal nature of rites of passage that share the process among all members of the community. Not only those who are being initiated are changed; the entire community is affected. As Eliade (1975) points out there is, in each ritual event, some sense of renewal and rebirth for the whole community. "(T)hrough the repetition, the reactualization, of the traditional rites, the entire community is regenerated" (p. 4).
In addition, Raphael (1988) notes: "The entire process is both intensely personal and genuinely social; society has in fact helped the individual to become the man he wants to be" (p. 13). Raphael insists that in this recognition is both credibility and identity for the person initiated. Both of these factors — recognition and group activity — are critical pieces in the effectiveness of this developmental process. Society not only allows people to come to some kind of fullness, but also, through its carefully ordered rituals, produces people able to live as required to insure the health of that culture.
This is reinforced by the acceptance of the change in status and position of the person in the community that the rite is designed to celebrate. All members of the community have a change in relationship through such a rite. In a coming-of-age ritual, the child ceases to be a child for all in the community, including his or her parents and siblings. A new life begins for everyone as the person is received, and now related to, as an adult. The change is marked ritually through celebration. Social behaviors and relationships are adjusted to underline and clarify what has been declared ceremonially. Passage is not treated abstractly but is concretized in the whole life of the community.1 This mutually reinforcing form, which moves life on to a new stage, contrasts to our practice of acknowledging some change in the status of an adolescent and then treating him or her as if nothing is actually different. Thus we send mixed messages to adolescents that undermine their sense of increased maturity or adulthood. Continued financial dependence, residing with parents long after puberty, extended schooling, lack of significant communal responsibility, and/or limited personal challenges for young adults may contain, delay, and even restrict much of the maturation process that is released in a rites-of-passage context. Suzette Heald (as cited in Raphael, 1988) argues that we must begin to see rites of passage as "transformational experiences" with major “effects on individual consciousness and . . . on character structure" (p. 227). We must also seek ways to allow our adolescents to move forward in conjunction with such a significant transformation. How are we to affirm and develop the emerging adult character of adolescents in our contexts? The integrative quality of rites of passage leads to their success, and it is lack of integration that contributes to the difficulty in our own context. All the essential elements of development are included in a rite-of-passage process. Sexuality, societal relationships, personal status and esteem, identity, skill development, religious duty, spiritual values, consideration of mortality — all come into play. Cultures that devised and practiced initiatory rites were and are performing a complex, sophisticated human activity that combines elements ranging from physical actions — like the separation and isolation of initiands from their families — to encounters with the spiritual beliefs and practices of the culture through masked and mysterious figures, to ritual ceremonies and markings. The process may take several years to complete, but there is a consciousness of the need for such activity that assures a degree of success for the participants. All aspects necessary for life and living are touched upon, affirmed, and set in motion in the person by the community of elders and peers giving credibility, recognition, and clarity to those in passage.
How might we translate such a supportive model into our random, individualized world in which even the borderlines between one stage of development and the next are unclear? VVhat kinds of programs can be designed that would serve such an integrative role and provide a process of affirmation and clarity for adolescents struggling to be adult?
DANIEL G. SCOTT
Scott, D.G. (1998). Rites of passage in adolescent development: A reappreciation. Child and Youth Care Forum, 27, 5. pp. 321-322.
NOTE
1. Note that a change of status for an initiand also changes the status of their parents and the relationships between parents and child. When the child “dies,” the parents are also freed from their task as providers and those responsible for this person. Everyone moves on to a new stage of life and the change of status is publicly affirmed.
REFERENCES
Eliade, M. (1958). Rites and symbols of initiation. Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper & Row.
Raphael, R. (1988). The men from the boys: Rites of passage in male America. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press.
