References:
(I have chosen Note 90, p.350 from Grimes' "Deeply Into The Bone")
Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Trans. Manika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.
Rites of Passage and Transition
Scholars such as Charles-Arnold Van Gennep have noted that virtually all human societies use ceremonial rites to mark significant transitions in the social status of individuals. These rites highlight and validate changes in a person's status, particularly on the occasion of such life-transforming events as birth, puberty, marriage, parenthood, and death, but also may occur upon taking a political office or joining a secret society.
Comparing the structure of such rituals in diverse cultures, Van Gennep discovered that rites of passage often share similar features, including a period of segregation from everyday life, a liminal state of transition from one status to the next, and a process of reintroduction to the social order with a new standing. Given these similarities, he coined the term "rites of passage" as an analytical concept, though others prefer the term "transition rites." Scholars often draw analogies between rites of passage and the human life cycle. In these rites, individuals are symbolically killed, reborn, and nurtured as they take on new social statuses, and then reborn into society as new and different persons. Portals often feature prominently in rites of passage, symbolizing the crossing of a threshold into a new social world.
During segregation, the common beginning stage of rites of passage, initiates undergo rituals meant to strip them of their identities and separate them from their previous social statuses. They may be forcibly moved geographically, or made to strip themselves of clothing, hair, or other physical markings of their previous selves. For example, young women's heads are shaved and eyebrows removed on the first day of the koroseek initiation ceremony among the Okiek of Kenya. Initiates often undergo rituals and ordeals designed to redefine their social standings. For example they may endure a variety of body modification procedures, including haircuts, tattoos, and scarification. Male circumcision and female excision also commonly mark rites of passage. The Luo of Kenya remove initiates' lower front incisors during initiation rites. Clothing and ornaments may also signify the loss of their previous status.
These rituals are often trials in which pain demarcates boundaries between the old and the new. During the Poro secret society initiation rite of the Mende in Sierra Leone, boys first face circumcision (if they are not already circumcised). Those conducting the rites then force the boys onto the ground and cut their backs with razors while forcing their heads into a hole. The resulting scars signify the teeth marks of the Poro spirit that consumes the boys. Having "died," the initiates will then reemerge from the bush reborn with a new social status.
The next stage in many rites of passage transforms individuals to new social statuses through liminal states. Communities often consider initiates exceptionally vulnerable and/or dangerous at this time because they have become socially ambiguous. Anthropologist Victor Turner wrote:
Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony. As such, their ambiguous and intermediate attributes are expressed by a rich variety of symbols in many societies that ritualize social and cultural transitions. Thus, liminality is frequently likened to death, to being in the womb, to invisibility, to darkness, to bisexuality, to the wilderness, and to an eclipse of the sun or moon.
Among the Mende, Poro initiates undergo training periods during which they are considered dangerous. They play pipes and yell warning cries to prevent passers-by from coming into contact with them. Poro initiates undergo ordeals during this liminal state, a common feature of rites of passage, particularly initiation rites. They are deprived of sleep, forced to labor, exposed to the elements, forced to seek their own nourishment in the bush, and instructed in Poro law.
The initiates then reemerge, often through formal ritual procedures, to the normal social fabric with a newly defined identity and a changed social status. Van Gennep coined a term to describe this process: aggregation. For example, the Mende Poro ceremony of rebirth makes the reluctant Poro spirit give birth to the initiates it has devoured. Using a rope, a female official pulls the initiates out of the Poro spirit's womb.
Ceremonies marking initiation into adulthood are the most common rites of passage. They often include trials of pain and stamina, periods of introspection, the teaching of sacred and secret stories, and the use of symbolic representations, including dances and masks, as a means of reshaping individuals' identities. Initiations may takes weeks or months, during which the initiates often live together in distinct and segregated houses. While other rites of passage commonly fall into the three phases Van Gennep described, they do not necessarily entail the ordeals associated with initiation rites.
Van Gennep viewed rites of passage as an essential ingredient in the rejuvenation of society. He 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. Some African societies maintain a structure of age-grades, groups of individuals who share similar social status by virtue of their similar age. For instance, the Nuer of southern Sudan are grouped into graduated age-grades, each lasting about ten years. Cohorts who share the same age-grades throughout their lives are called an age set. Ceremonial rites of passage, including ordeals for the earlier age grades, mark the age set's movement from one grade to another. By institutionalizing the transitions in social status, rites of passage help to eliminate the friction that would otherwise accompany the frequent renegotiations of relative status between individuals and groups within a society.
Some anthropologists, such as Bronislaw Malinowski, have sought to explain the prevalence of rites of passage by noting their psychotherapeutic quality. Such rituals give individuals social support in confronting the anxiety they may feel facing new social roles or major life changes, such as parenthood or the death of loved ones. Funeral rites, for instance, help those who are grieving by ritually introducing the deceased into the world of the afterlife. Mourning rituals, in particular, provide the bereaved with structure at a time when their most fundamental social relations have changed. This structure helps them to face the loss of the deceased.
Others see these rites as a means of creating emotional bonds that maintain social order. The rites use symbolism to reinforce social statuses, norms, and values, and they increase group solidarity by promoting empathy. Individuals who undergo a rite of passage together, such as members of the same age set, often develop strong personal bonds and form a community of equals within the larger community. These horizontal bonds are thought to strengthen the social fabric, particularly since they tend to cross-cut other social categories, such as membership in different lineages.
Although many societies maintain rites of passage, and while these rites often share structural similarities, their cultural content varies widely. For example, while rites of passage often roughly coincide with physiological stages, adulthood is a cultural, not just a biological, concept. The meaning of adulthood, and the age at which it begins, varies from culture to culture, ranging from eight years of age among the Gussi of Kenya to between 15 and 18 years among the Maasai. The specific symbolism and meaning attached to rites of passage also varies widely. Moreover, the significance of rituals often changes over time within a society. The scholar Maurice Block has shown, for example, that male circumcision rituals among the Merina of Madagascar have been employed to express changing political beliefs. So, while rites of passage may aid in maintaining stability, they also express cultural and social dynamics, and therefore are constantly evolving.
Part 1: Overview
I chose my resource based upon a "note" from the section of Grimes' book which is titled "Patterns of Initiation". In this section, Grimes introduces Van Gennep's theory of moments in initiation. These moments are separation, transition, and incorporation. Grimes then points out that one theorist noted that this pattern is a biased theory. This is where I found my note to seek out and research. It was note number 92. It led me to a book written by Bruce Lincoln titled "Emerging from the Chrysalis: Studies in Rituals of Women's Initiation". The note pointed to page 101 in the book, where it is put forth, that, for women, the pattern of initiation involves enclosure, metamorphosis and emergence. Lincoln then gives many examples of societies in which this pattern for women exits. What Lincoln is doing in his writing, is he is pointing out that the reason Van Gennep concluded with his three part pattern of initiation is based upon the fact that "Van Gennep cited very few examples of women's initiations"(100). Lincoln also mentions how important it is to understand the differences in male and female initiations. This is what Lincoln discusses in this chapter of his book.
Part 2: Context
When reading the section in Grimes called "Patterns of Initiation", I came upon something called a threefold scheme. This scheme was introduced by Arnold Van Gennep. It is his theory of patterns of initiation, which states that there are three specific moments a person goes through during an initiatory process. These three moments are that of separation, transition and incorporation. This threefold scheme is strongly associated with the process of male initiation. Grimes points this out saying that "young boys are (1)taken from a village and their mothers(separation); (2)sequestered in some cordoned-off place, where they suffer ordeals as initiates and receive sacred knowledge(transition); (3)and finally returned, now men, to their village in order to assume the role of adult(incorporation)"(Grimes: 104). Directly after this, Grimes mentions how this scheme is now seen as biased and which is a "distortion of the trajectory of women's lives and the structures of their initiation"(104). This is when I found Bruce Lincoln's book "Emerging from the Chrysalis", which focuses mostly on women's initiations, and Lincoln has his own threefold scheme which represents women's initiations. The moments in this scheme are enclosure, metamorphosis and emergence. I believe Grimes used this source well, because it shows a clear contrast in men's and women's initiations. He used this resource to point us readers towards a writing that explains the differences between the two schemes and also to show how important it is not to look at the male patterns only. The on thing Grimes does not do himself, is describe, in further detail, the women's initiation scheme, but leaves it to us to search for Bruce Lincoln's writing.
Part 3: Critical Response
In Bruce Lincoln's "Emerging from the Chrysalis", we see the importance of recognizing the difference between women's and men's processes of initiation. He discusses the women's threefold scheme. It consists of enclosure, metamorphosis and emergence. Women are enclosed during initiation, often in homes with family members, such as mothers and sisters and the like. The metamorphosis is that of menstruation or pregnancy or other important changes in a woman's lifetime. This is often linked with some physical change, which is visible to the public, such as elaborate jewelry or clothing. They then emerge outside in the presence of others to conclude the initiation process. An example of this is how a Takuna woman gets "her seclusion chamber cut apart like a cocoon, (then)steps out to face assaulting demons and tour the universe"(104). Lincoln seems to enjoy this comparison of women's initiation to that of the process of emerging from a cocoon. The change goes on inside the cocoon, in a private setting, only witnessed by the initiate and others who are very close to her. When the change has been completed, she emerges from her cocoon for everyone to witness her change into a sort of newness. She has become a butterfly, for us all to see. I thought that this comparison excellently describes this initiatory process.
I believe that this difference in the initiation processes,
of both men and women, does truly exist and that it is important for us
to recognize this difference. It looks as though these theories go right
along with why women are seen as lower beings than men in some other cultures
and societies. When the women emerges from her cocoon or chrysalis or home,
she is different in some ways, but according to the society, she is still
a woman. She emerges just in a different stage of her womanhood. Unlike
initiations for men in these societies. Men will come from their initiation
considered changed and different. They go from boy to adult to hunter to
caretaker to provider to elder. These changes are important societal changes
that everyone notices and recognizes, because the men have a much stronger
position in society than women do. For society, males turn into something
else while females always are women. This could be why the females need
a representation of their change, such as the elaborate jewelry, in order
for the society to notice. The difference in male and female importance
in society is what causes these differences in their initiatory processes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rituals and Children
This whole issue around rituals for children started for me when I read, in the Grimes text "The Dove Still Travels With Me," on page 76. This section tells of a naming ceremony for children, and I really got caught up in the idea of doing something for my own sons.
This story comes from Lois Lambert, a Welfare State associate. (Welfare State International in Ulverstone, England).
Lambert tells of six families and their guests who gather at Easter, to celebrate the naming of seven children. This was a celebration to dedicate their children in front of friends and strangers, a gesture of hope and blessing, protection too, in the face of the terrors of their present world.
My heart filled with emotion to think of something so beautiful. In a world where babies die every day due to abortions, children abused, young people especially teen, just for the mere fact that they are teens, children often seen as responsibilities, instead of gifts, and I suppose the list goes on. I started thinking how beautiful it would be to celebrate with family and friends the fact that my sons "are," just because they "are"nothing more, nothing less.
Grimes seems to be thrilled with such an event as Lambert describes. Grimes says "there is no mystification of power and no pseudo magical conjunction. But magic there is - the magic of the every day made special by the concentration of human energies and affections."
Grimes also recognizes that even though this ceremony is held on Easter it is not, in his words"shackled either by the Christian liturgical calendar or by conventional uses of the Bible." "There is no sense that the children should make way for patriarchs or that their naming celebration should be transmuted into worship." I also recognize this, but I also recognize something very spiritual happening. I am also not saying that if it was celebrated around Christian traditions or in any other tradition that it would be any less a celebration, as long as the child - children remain the centre of attraction.
Kylie Stark was three years old when she took part in the ceremony, she is now 21, in her own words she expresses these thoughts, "The most specific memory I have from the actual ceremony is of being given a live dove to release to the winds. I distinctly remember the thrill of holding the bird, the excitement of letting it go, and watching it fly away, followed swiftly by disappointment that it had gone forever." At this stage of my sons lives these words would have much more meaning for us both, I let my children go a long time ago but there is also a part of me that holds on to them, I guess this would be cutting the final thread, by showing them that I trust them to be more than able to make it completely on their own. I see respect in this act as well.
If this was so much a powerful ordeal for a three-year-old how much more meaningful for children, who can understand the full significance of such an event, even adolescents need to be told how special they are.
I think Grimes is trying to encourage a feeling that rites are powerful, almost magic. We don't always have to understand what is happening, but these things have power and somehow get embedded in our subconscious. I don't believe even though my sons are adults that it is too late to celebrate their lives. This is not something only for young children to experience. It is for this reason I was prompted to search deeper to find more rituals surrounding children.
I was disappointed that I could not find the specific book mentioned by Grimes but I did come across some pretty good resources included in this list;Rituals of Childhood - Ivan G Marcus Christian Initiation - Arthur McCormack Structures of Initiation In Crisis - Edited by Louis Maldonado and David Power The Archetypal Actions of Ritual - Caroline Humphrey and James Laidlaw The Magic of Ritual - Tom F Driver These books became my best sources because one book led to another to another, mostly through tracking authors and finding the best books I could. There are a few books I still hope to locate for future resources.
My best source came from Marcus, who discusses ritual from as far back as the 17th century. He begins by focussing on Jewish traditions and explains how ritual stems from the idea of remembering important elements and events from their religious heritage. He indicates that children from the moment they are born are raised to know, to understand, to respect, and to carry on their religious traditions.
This book is an awesome resource for anyone who has any interest in rituals associated with children and how some of these got started and why.
Unfortunately I was unable to find any other works associated with Marcus. All I could really figure out about Marcus is that he is probably Jewish himself, but I cannot be 100% sure. This assumption came through reading the acknowledgements at the start of the book. I do however believe this book is written from a Jewish perspective, I find it has depth and I sense a warmth and a respect for ritual.
I want to include a few truly interesting rituals associated with children that come out of Marcus' storehouse of information, they are as follows;
The term ritual is used interchangeably with custom, rite and ceremony.
"1675" North Africa.
Jewish rituals associated with children are many and have deep grounded meaning. Ceremonies begin at a very early age and these children are prepared every day of their young lives for the next move into further growth.
Children are taught at home before they go to school "decent modes of salutation, and imprinted them with an awful reverence for God's Name, and the essays of hating all religions but their own, their next endeavour is to instruct them in the elements of book learning". (p 20, Rituals of Childhood, Ivan G Marcus ). They know their letters , can pronounce them and can read a little. They are always enticed to learn by being given sweetened treats, before and after school and with these words being spoken to them "as this is sweet to the palate, so let learning be sweet to thy mind". (P 20, Marcus).
In the 20th century, even before the age of five in some Jewish traditions "a Jewish boy undergoes an initiation called kittab (literally one who writes with speed and ease). It is spread out over thirty days of festive parties hosted by fathers of kittab boys. Each boy's hair is cut at home, and he is bathed and dressed in a white shirt and other garments covered with amulets and symbolically marked. He is introduced in the synagogue to the rabbi or other elders, who place a turban on his head and stick flowers in it. His father parades him around the synagogue, and everyone gives him coins". (p 22, Marcus).
Still in other Jewish traditions also at the age of five he was not only taught the Torah, but a bride was also chosen for him and there would be arranged a "miniature wedding, the boy and girl were brought together in a real marriage ceremony followed by a festive meal. After morning service the men went to the groom's house. The rabbi wrote the Hebrew alphabet in honey on a clean board, told the boy to lick the letters, and said "So may the words of the Torah be sweet to your palate". (pp 23- 24 Marcus) Interestingly enough these practices may be related to contemporary Muslim traditions.
Another ceremony "takes place when a boy reaches the age of four years, four months and four days. On this day the boy is dressed up like a little bridegroom and sent to school to recite his first verse of the Koran. The verse is written in honey on a slate and, after the boy masters it, the honey is dissolved in water, the boy drinks the sweet holy words as a spiritual and physical nourishment"(p24, Marcus)
This is just a tiny example of some of the rites written about in this book and as you can see for the very young child, there are many more very interesting rites to read about in this book. I think one of the reasons these rites are so powerful is because these things are begun almost at birth, these children are instructed to understand about their religion and about how they are to behave at a very early age. I would imagine most children would be highly offended if they did not go through the process themselves. It is part and parcel of their very existence.
I would like to comment on some of the questions and responses people wrote on my draft copy. First off thanks for the really positive remarks, some of you seemed to be touched by what you read. This tells me that no matter who we are or how old we are, there is a real sense of beauty or comfort or something that touches us when we read about being celebrated just because we "are". Not because of what we do, or say, or accomplish but once again just because we "are". So thanks for the remarks.
Someone asks "what kind of impact does lack of ritual have on a child"? I believe we cannot go through life without coming in contact with some kind of ritual activity touching or lives, so I think it would be difficult to answer such a question. I do however believe that ritual when it does happen to children, especially if the ritual is putting them dramatically in the centre, probably does have an impact. Perhaps it isn't always felt initially but I do believe it does impact the subconscious.
I think we all remember birthday celebrations for instance, we may not always appreciate how powerful they are until we miss one, that one will be remembered I'll bet. My son always expected a cheese cake for his birthday, well I just baked him an ordinary cake one year, he never let me forget it.
Perhaps this is why I would like to have a ritual celebration for my sons now, I am sure they would never in their life time forget it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our lives could all be celebrated?
Someone else asks, "what if parents don't teach their children about any religious traditions? Do they pick up traditions on their own from other sources? If they are not taught a specific religion how does this affect the child?"
Personally I think it's not so bad to have a specific religious tradition taught to children, but I do believe children should be taught moral values. I'm not sure religious traditions or being brought up in a religious tradition is always for the betterment of some children' life. My children were not raised to have a religious tradition but they were raised to have morals and to be open to learning about religion, they were also raised to respect all people regardless of race or religion. I do not think they are any worse off because they are "religion free"if I can use such a description. They may pick up traditions along the way. My youngest son, who is now 20, has found that by reading books on Buddhism has a very positive effect on his own personal growth, and I am delighted to find the tiny library in my home to have more Buddhist material added to the shelves. I hope his life is enhanced by what he reads but I really do not believe religion is essential to his having a good life or for that matter a better life because of it. He may yet teach me that I am very wrong, he may come to me one day and ask why I did not teach him more about religion and God, but this remains to be seen.
Thank you all again for the comments and questions.
The resource that I have chosen to further my knowledge and understanding of ritual is Reproducing the Future Anthropology, Kinship and the New Reproductive Technologies. A collection of essays by Marilyn Strathern.
I have chosen this resource for a number of reasons. I am interested in escaping the English speaking, Christian based, media driven culture I live in and as a result, hope to expand my understanding of ritual. I am very interested in what we can learn from other cultures as well as what they can learn from us.
This book is about a number of different things as the title shows. It is broken down into chapters as follows:
Part 1:
Chapter 1: Kinship assisted
Chapter 2: Enterprising Kinship: Consumer choice and
the new reproductive technologies
Chapter 3: Future Kinship and the study of a culture
Part 2:
Chapter 4: Between a Melanesianist and a Feminist
Chapter 5: Parts and Wholes: Refiguring relationships
Part 3:
Chapter 6: Partners and Consumers
Chapter 7: A partitioned process
Chapter 8: Reproducing anthropology
My focus is going to be largely on the chapters within part one although I may take sections from other parts of the book and use those to help me understand her writing more. As a result, I feel I ought to define kinship seeing as that is what the majority of the book is based on. Kinship is "connection by blood, marriage or adoption; family relationship...relationship by nature of character; affinity".
In talking about how animals can modify behaviour on the basis of relatedness to others, Strathern says, "human beings have similar facilities: mothers are able to distinguish their own infant from other by cry within 48 hours of birth, and by smell within a few days. However, in her view, the problem that human beings create is that their ideas about kinship do not match directly on the facts of biological relatedness. We don't perform kin recognition in the way that animals do because we have the concept of kinship." Strathern speaks about the making of persons... "in Western (Euro- American) middle-class culture, parenthood traditionally presumed a relationship between persons. Yet there was a constant lopsidedness or asymmetry to the depiction of relationships for the very reason that they appeared to be constructed after natural facts. The converse was the supposition that if there is a biological tie, then there is always a question of whether or not social recognition should follow."
Strathern has much to say in regards to kinship. In the chapter on enterprising kinship, she gives a humorous example, albeit exaggerated, on how we could structure rituals so they better provide for us in the future. Kind of like hitting the replay button and getting the experience back over and over again. Here is the example she provides:
Suppose the wedding were organized for the multimedia...if the couple have any cultural finesse, they will be making their own hypertext. Not an album of photographs, but a computer programme in which they will be able to relive various pathways through their wedding day, depending on the preference of the moment. In fact, they may well plan the occasion with multiple interpretations in mind, think about the alternatives they will be able to present later to themselves, in short, make choices on their wedding day that they can later relive as choices when they push the programme buttons. One's own pre-selected selections? Not much enterprise left for the future at all.
My account is intended as an exercise in cultural caricature drawing attention to features through exaggeration. By the same token, the very idea of enterprise comes to seem a caricature of individual endeavor. The Enterprise Culture may very well find it has not reproduced enterprise. The chances are that a culture that thinks itself enterprising will simply reproduce more and more technologies for its marketable reproduction.
In chapter three, there is a section called A Concept of Culture. First off, I must state that I have a difficult time defining culture fairly (or at least what I see as a fair description...) In the chapter called Between a Melanesianist and a Feminist, Strathern says "no one instance set of values, percepts, images is ever equivalent to the whole of perceived reality. The non-equivalence of language (or culture) to life is a starting point. By the same token, this suggests an infinite multiplication of possible forms, where refiguring must always depend on 'another perspective'. 'We' thus see ourselves as caught up in complexity and diversity, through images of ever-receding knowledge and the incomplete relationship between things (society and culture) and persons (subjects, bodies)."
This is, I believe, an important statement in terms of rituals and rites of passage. Both in performing those already created and creating those which need creating.
Strathern speaks volumes about reproductive medicine while informing the reader of some very interesting ways to view society and, better yet, ritual.
The portion that grimes utilized in Deeply Into the Bone was taken from chapter four of Strathern.
"Among certain groups in Melanesia, initiations are said to dismantle identities that were originally androgynous, male-female, in order to create single-sex people capable of reproducing in relationship with each other. In other words, many initiations in traditional, small-scale societies do not produce men or women, much less generic adults, but rather potential fathers and mothers. The global data emphasize strongly gendered identity formation and reveal fundamental differences between ceremonies for females and males, whereas North Americans experiment with initiating boys and girls together. Many societies do not initiate both sexes, much less together. (Grimes 109).
Marilyn Strathern is the author of my text and this book was published in 1992. She is a professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. This book was written and "developed over years of fieldwork in Melanesia". It was also written over a two year period. It is a collection of essays which "belong to, and the majority were written during, the time when the Bill for the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act (1990) going through Parliament had stimulated public debate in Britain...the essays touch on the British debate from the particular perspective of an anthropologist."
Ms. Strathern is also the author of a number of different books, those being,
~After Nature
~The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women &
Problems with Society in Melanesia
~Nature, Culture and Gender (written with Carol
MacCormack)
~Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability,
Ethics and the Academy
~Partial Connections
~Women in Between: Female Roles
in a Male World: Mount Hagen, New Guinea
~Shifting Contexts: Transformations in Anthropological Knowledge
In terms of how Grimes uses Strathern's work, he chose a very interesting part of her text. However, after focusing on the first part of Strathern's book myself, I feel that Grimes may have by- passed brilliant statements made by Strathern which could be used to talk about rituals...maybe with good reason. Using the quote from where he did regarding Melanesian culture, he introduced another concept by discussing a new culture. I think, however that Strathern made amazing points in terms of kinship and how it makes us behave. I feel that Grimes used her text well within the context of his discussing. In further reading, I can also see how the book can be used even more as it (as a whole) is a well written text which related to our study of ritual.
In terms of ritual, I feel Grimes and Strathern agree on some level. Grimes used Strathern's work/voice to describe rituals throughout other cultures. He made it clear that North American culture is different from that of Melanesian culture as we (North Americans) tend to attempt (most times, unsuccessfully) initiating boys and girls together. Strathern was saying that initiation was about creating potential fathers and mothers. I think Grimes understands that coming of age rites for boys and girls cannot be placed in the same box. He seems to say that something needs to be done in terms of initiation in North American culture though and seems to suggest that we may be able to learn something from these cultures. He seems to be using Strathern's voice to strengthen his own argument which I feel is a positive thing.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about Ms. Strathern's book and a few that I did not. I think she speaks volumes about ritual but it does not seem she is always aware she is actually discussing it. She examines kinship and I take that as being very fitting to the concept of ritual. I may, however, be taking her work and applying it in a way she did not prepare it to be applied.
When she says that we, as human beings, cannot perform kin recognition in the way that animals do because we have the concept of kinship, I connect that to a number of different things. We have an immediate connection to the concept of ritual and rites of passage...we think we know what they should look like. Each person has their own concept of ritual. This may block us from creating other rituals or from stepping outside of our own mind frame and understanding other events which may be culturally considered to be ritualistic. I think because of our conceptualization of ritual(s), we wear blinders to accepting and possibly creating other rituals. Does this make any sense??
I found her discussion of the "Enterprise Culture" very applicable to the idea of ritual people in our culture seem to want instant gratification in terms of rituals. She used a wedding day as an example. We want to be able to relive the ritual over and over again...not only experience it once. The ritual means something and we want to hold onto that something forever. When we discussed birth rituals in class, the biggest problem seemed to be that we do not remember them and therefore they are not valuable. The same occurs in coming of age rites...we seem to agree that not very many young people make the decision to participate in many of these rituals and therefore they are not meaningful either. Are the only meaningful rituals those which we can clasp in our hands and keep? The ones that we made conscious decisions regarding colours of dresses and types of cake? Are these the only rituals that are important in this "enterprise culture"?