Are Rites of Passage Really Necessary?

Share thoughts and ideas regarding what can be done to meet contemporary humanity's need for rites of initiation and passage.

Moderators: Clemsy, Martin_Weyers, Cindy B.

Locked
Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Are Rites of Passage Really Necessary?

Post by Lizpete »

Just thought I'd throw the question out here: Are Rites of Passage Really Necessary?

Seems to me in Campbell's writing of such rites its the tribe that determines when the childhood is done, rather than the person deciding to put childish things away. The first situation seems pretty harsh, in all probablity conferring adulthood or adult experiences on children not yet quite prepared to take in these experiences. The latter situation requires the individual to take on responsibilities he or she might rather avoid, preferring the indulgence of youth.
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

Transtar
Associate
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 2:41 am
Location: Marietta, Ga

Post by Transtar »

I feel like rites of passage are necessary, espically those that take us from childhood to adulthood. How many myths and stories are about someone "becoming a man" or "growing up". The rites are our own hero journey. but thats just my 2 cents.

Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Post by Lizpete »

Okay first off- Thanks for responding!

If I understand your post you're saying that by definition rites of passages are necessary and also that because people have historically written and talked about growing up such rites are important. Little bit of a circular argument there...

So maybe you can tell me what rites are important? What rites have relevance for today? (And yes in there I guess I'm asking what's a rite of passage?)

(Liz feeling a little like a NY Times reporter at a White House press briefing...)
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Hi Lizpete and Transtar...

Rites of passage fall under Campbell's pedagogical and sociological functions of myth, which I found defined by David Kudler as:
The third function of a mythology is sociological: to validate and maintain a certain specific social order, here and now, of a specific society.

The fourth function is the pedagogical, guiding the individual harmoniously through the inevitable crises of the stages of life in his world in terms of its goods, its values, and its dangers.
Rites of passage not only serve as milestones for life's passages (childhood to adulthood to seniorhood and exit preparation), but also define one's place in society.

That all this has broken down or become diluted today is a crisis.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Post by Lizpete »

Has it broken down and gotten dilluted Clemsy? Can our system of schooling be seen as one long rite? (With a little celebration at the end of it.) Instead of some hunting and gathering tutorial with a brutal test at the end? Dilluted or more gentle? Or am I totally misguided?

Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "Rites of passage fall under...myth."
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Has it broken down and gotten dilluted Clemsy?
I'd say it has. One could say this is a drawback of a multi-cultural society. What rites are to be used? We are connected by the milestones of school graduations, drivers license acquisition, marriage (the only potentially religious one on the list) and retirement. But do these activate the energies necessary to differentiate between this stage of life and the next?

Where is the line between child and adulthood when we've extended childhood well past high school when it comes to independence? Of what value are our elders when they're considered expenses and all too often warehoused until a death they haven't been prepared for?

Within our various religious traditions there are rites, for sure, but they don't carry the weight they once did and don't bind the larger community. Rather they define differences, no?

We live in a peculiar time, transitioning from what was to what will be, I think. There is reactionary behavior attempting to resurrect what was as is evident in Christian and Islamic fundamentalism. On the other hand there is experimenting with new (and often strange and foolish) ideas, trying to find some mythic traction somewhere.
Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "Rites of passage fall under...myth."
This is a point of contention with those who don't believe rites do fall under myth. This has been discussed around here somewhere before. Campbell was of the mind that rites are the enactment of myth.
Functioning as a "way," mythology and ritual conduce to a transformation of the individual, disengaging him from his local, historical conditions and leading him toward some kind of ineffable experience. Functioning as an "ethnic idea," on the other hand, the image binds the individual to his family's system of historically conditioned sentiments, activities, and beliefs, as a functioning member of a sociological organism. This antimony is fundamental to our subject, and every failure to recognize it leads not only to unnecessary argument, but also to a misunderstanding -- one way or the other -- of the force of the mythological symbol itself, which is, precisely, to render an experience of the ineffable through the local and concrete, and thus, paradoxically, to amplify the force and appeal of the local forms even while carrying the mind beyond them. The distinctive challenge of mythology lies in its power to effect this dual end; and not to recognize this fact is to miss the whole point of our science. ~Primitive Mythology
How this applies to today's society is the problem for which Campbell presents Creative Mythology as an answer. I'll find the appropriate quote later... It's my favorite.

Clemsy
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

noman
Associate
Posts: 670
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:26 am

Post by noman »

A long time ago, I voiced a complaint in these Forums about Joseph Campbell. I said that his emphasis was too much on myth and not enough on rite. BodhiBliss, who is one of the leading thought police in these Forums, pointed out that Campbell’s work is filled with instruction on the importance of rites. So after a few minutes of thought I reconsidered. I had to admit that I was wrong. Campbell does indeed adequately express the importance of rites. But, in an effort to save a little face, I maintained that this message of rites has simply has not come through.

The fact that Lizpete’s question comes from someone obviously well read and also well acquainted with Campbell illustrates my point beautifully. Nandu, who is no Campbell slouch, asked a similar question in this Topic Category in a thread titled ‘Do we need rites?’ And BodhiBliss titled his essay on this subject: Ritual: Who needs it?

People who read Campbell don’t generally ask, ‘Myth: Who needs it?’

Most people who show up at this website appreciate the loss of mythology. But they think in terms of a loss of story, not a loss of rite.

My contention is that we need to be re-ritualized as much as we need to be re-mythologized. If the rituals we have are inadequate, it doesn’t mean we should discount the importance of ritual any more than we should discount the importance of myth due to their inadequacy. Furthermore, I believe that rite precedes myth and is therefore more important for a society groping for a new mythology.
For while many cases can be shown in which a myth has been invented to explain a rite, it would be hard to point to single case in which a myth has given rise to a rite. Ritual may be the parent of myth, but can never be its child.

- James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1906-1915)
In POM Campbell says that some of Frazer’s ideas may seem a little antiquated. But I happen to like this one. A more recent exploration of the importance of rites in modern society was written by Tom F. Driver, Magic and Ritual, (1991)
P31 Everything points to the supposition that our remote ancestor were ritualizing before they became human. This activity became the pathway to the human condition. Ritualization is a way, an experimental way, of going from the inchoate to the expressive, from the sheerly pragmatic to the communicative. Hence, in humans it is a close relative of art, especially the performing arts. In fact, we had best think of it as their progenitor, and as the source also of speech, of religion, of culture, and of ethics. It is not as true to say that we human beings invented rituals as that rituals have invented us.

* * * * * * *

P92 If we think of ritual as enacting a myth, or as a means of persuasion, we are looking at it from the rear. Rituals acquire mythical and symbolic interpretations in the course of time.

- Tom F. Driver, Magic and Ritual, (1991)
Anthropologist Rene Girard (b. 1923) provides a sense of how important ritual is:
“ …all the great institutions of mankind, both secular and religious, spring from ritual. Such is the case… with political power, legal institutions, medicine, the theater, philosophy and anthropology itself.”

- Rene Girard
I know I’m veering. Lizpete asked about ‘rites of passage’. But I feel I have to define the word ‘rite’ first. My definition.

There’s a difference between a rite and a repetitive action. I brush my teeth every morning but I don’t consider it a rite. The difference between a repetitive action and a rite can be likened to Jung’s difference between a sign and a symbol. A sign refers to a literal thing. A road sign might say Chartres 72 km. The town of Chartres is a literal place. But a picture of a chalice with the Eucharist above it refers to something that has meanings beyond its literal reference. A symbol, in addition to its literal reference, refers to something that is transcendent or unapproachable by reason alone.

Similarly, the gestures of a traffic cop are repetitive actions, and not a rite in my definition. But the presentation and reception of a Nobel Prize is a rite. A rite reinforces values that would not necessarily exist in the absence of such rites.

A rite, to some degree, always expresses and reinforces a shared belief system.

But this definition contradicts Tom F. Drivers contention that we were ritualizing long before we became human. By my definition, we were performing repetitive actions, stimulating actions, before they were given meaning and transformed into rituals as I define the term here. Our language betrays the value of rites because we don’t distinguish between the words ‘ritual’ as it refers to the behavior of birds interacting, and the word ‘ritual’ as it refers to a big fat Greek Wedding, for example. But there’s a big fat difference.

Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep coined the term ‘rite of passage’ in 1908. He described it in three stages:

1.) rites of separation (washings, cleansings, and other purifications)
2.) rites of transition (trials, ‘crossing the threshold’)
3.) rites of inclusion (sharing of food or clothes or space…)

The Latin word ‘limen’ means ‘threshold’. Gennep called these rites of passage ‘liminal rites’. It’s all based on the individual’s relationship to society, the social boundaries that define a person in relation to others. Our society is permeated with ‘rites of passage’.

In the year 2008, one individual will, by consensus, join an exclusive group of forty-two individuals that have had the title, ‘President of the United States of America’. There will be a ceremony, and he or she will take an oath of office. Every judge, every soldier, every cop, even every citizen of the US must take an oath of some kind. When Priests are ordained there is usually a ceremony. When physicians finish their schooling, they usually take some form of ‘Hippocratic oath’. Names are often changed to express the transition. Instead of Joe Dolittle, it’s Dr. Dolittle or Dolittle Phd. Instead of James McBrophy, it’s Father McBrophy when he becomes a Priest. Although it’s currently under revision, a woman’s name changes when she is married. A ceremony takes place, a transition is made, and the society now knows to think of the married woman as not available in the same way she was before she was married. At least in theory.

When aunt Zelda dies, we don’t simple call up the morgue and say come get her. There is usually some sort of ceremony. A funeral ceremony illustrates the point that the ‘rite of passage’ is just as much a service to the community as it is to the individual.

Rites of passage define relationships in ways that would not be possible in their absence. In their most basic function, rites personalize that which is naturally alien, that is; the material world, while at the same time depersonalizing that which is personal, that is; the psychological world. So a material object, such as the Eiffel Tower, obtains a meaning beyond its original purpose as a radio antenna. And a person properly ritualized feels less isolated with the help of the icon of the Eiffel Tower, knowing that others are likewise initiated and impressed.

So we are already flooded with rites, and ‘rites of passage’. But the issue that Lizpete and Clemsy and Tom F. Driver address is a failure of certain ‘rites of passage’ or lack thereof in our culture. For me, two examples really stand out.

We don’t have a ritual for a boy becoming a man or girl becoming a woman. There’s no definition in terms of instruction or ceremony for when society should start treating a young person as an adult – or when a young person should think of him or herself as a responsible adult in relation to society. We just sort of ‘wing it’. It’s there – but it’s very loosely defined. And I think that’s a big problem. Campbell talked about this as he taught a generation of students that sometimes were spoken of as ‘the Peter Pan Generation’. (Personally, I blame Walt Disney)

The other great failure of rites of passage in our culture has to do with divorce. Divorce can be one of the most trying experiences we face, and yet there is not one single ritual or ceremony to help people through this difficult passage. People tend to turn to drugs and alcohol, and therapists and such. Again - it’s just very loosely defined by legal institutions and the tax code and such. It’s a terrible failure.

But all problem solving can be thought of in three steps:

1) recognizing a problem
2) developing a solution
3) implementing that solution

When it comes to the loss of myth, the loss of story, most thoughtful people, I think, are at step two. (Though certain ‘Cultural Creatives’ might be at step three.) But when it comes to the loss of rite, I think many of us - perhaps the majority of us - are at step one.

Many of these ideas are addressed in Bodhi’s essay on the topic: Ritual: Who needs it?

- NoMan

Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Post by Lizpete »

Hmmm, Clemsy
Within our various religious traditions there are rites, for sure, but they don't carry the weight they once did and don't bind the larger community.
Are you arguing for an American national religion? :shock:

Can you separate out psychology from religion? Campbell tried to find the monomyth, and believe that all humans shared some basic experiences- thus the similarity of stories and myths. What is more basic than rites of passage?

Frankly, getting a drivers license doesn't sound like a rite of passage. Certainly it doesn't fit noman's explanation:
In their most basic function, rites personalize that which is naturally alien, that is; the material world, while at the same time depersonalizing that which is personal, that is; the psychological world.
Hey does prom fit? Okay, more seriously. Seems to me a kid goes through 12 years of preparation to enter American society as an adult. I think thats a really long drawn out rite. It just looks odd compared to spending a week a lone in the wilderness hunting.

Or maybe taking this in an entirely different direction, America prefers for individuals to claim adulthood rather than having it conferred.
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

noman
Associate
Posts: 670
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:26 am

Post by noman »

Boys start playing with cars, trucks, trains, and planes and other such drivables when they are just tots. It’s a big deal when he gets to drive the real thing. It’s a milestone in the transition from dependency to responsibility. And just like the danger of hunting and warring in primary cultures, the young person is impressed with images of mutilated bodies and mangled vehicles.

We have an intimate relationship with these mobile machines. Some even talk about America’s love affair with the automobile – though I think it extends to other modes of transport; boats, planes, motorcycles, etc. That’s exactly what I mean by making the alien – steel, chrome, plastic, rubber, and glass familiar and personal. There’s an emotion bond between man and material.

At the same time, the young man feels a kinship with his fellow men that know and love these machines in the same way because they have been initiated through the same ‘rites’ – watching auto chases and crashes in films, watching Nascar races, helping their Dad change the flat tire, and being wise about all the new gadgets in cars.

Of course, if you’re sort of a nerd like me you don’t feel this love of motory things as much. But there are other material things that through initiation bind a people together by shared emotional response.

It’s easy to see how getting a drivers license is a rite of passage by looking at a classic story of it gone awry.

You must know the story of Phaeton, whose father was none other than the god Apollo. Phaeton complains to his mortal mum, “My friends don’t believe I’m the son of the Sun God. They say I’m just an ordinary mortal like you mom.
It's so... hum-iliating."

She tells him, “Go east young man, and find your father, so that you may know the truth.”

So he leaves his home in Ethiopia, crosses Asia and India and reaches the edge of the world at the Himalayas. And there he finds his father’s shimming palace of golden sunlight.

Apollo greets him and asks, “Phaeton, why have you traveled so far to the end of the earth?”

“I seek proof of my kinship with Apollo”

“Your mother did not lie. You are indeed my son. And for proof, I, Apollo, god of light, shall grant you one wish. What is it you want? Fame? Fortune? Love?"

“Well, you know, Dad, what I really want, more than anything – you did say any wish didn’t you?”

“Any wish, my son.”

“What I’d really, really like…

- is the keys to the Ferrari for just one night." Apollo’s face freezes in terror

"When my friends see me comin’ down the street in that Ferrari - rappin’ on the cell phone – smokin’ a joint - woofers blastin’ away – boom, boom, boom – my mediocrity complex is gonna disappear like nothin’.”

Of course, you all know what happens to poor Phaeton. He was just a bit too immature and unprepared for this ‘rite of passage’.
Hic situs est Phaeton,
currus auriga paterni,
Quem si non tenuit,
magnis tamen excidit ausis.

- Ovid.

Here lies Phaeton,
the driver of his father's chariot,
which if he failed to manage,
yet he fell in a great undertaking.
And it’s been happening to sixteen-year-olds ever since.

- NoMan

Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Post by Lizpete »

My mistake then- your rendition of Phaeton's story does seem to suggest getting a driver's license as a rite of passage. So does that mean the fault is in us, and by "us" I mean me, that the rite seems to just be a skill test?

Or was the wild ride just not to be attempted. Realm of the gods and all that. (Just trying to find the pyschological transformation in the tale.) Putting it back into your definition Noman: Doesn't seem like the realm of the gods should be "personalized", as its not the material world. A false "rite"?

Where's Clemsy in all of this? I thought for sure a school teacher would opine...
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

Clemsy
Working Associate
Posts: 10645
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:00 am
Location: The forest... somewhere north of Albany
Contact:

Post by Clemsy »

Where's Clemsy in all of this?
Spinning plates on sticks, running back and forth! Whoa! One's starting to wobble! Gotta run!

Clemsy!

(I'll catch up with this one....)
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

noman
Associate
Posts: 670
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:26 am

Post by noman »

So does that mean the fault is in us, and by "us" I mean me, that the rite seems to just be a skill test?

Or was the wild ride just not to be attempted?

- Lizpete
Well – in the story of Phaeton, we have a mortal, or rather 1/2 mortal, trying to do a god’s job. It’s usually some insult that humbles the mortal in the presence of a Greek god. But in this case it was arrogance on the part of Phaeton, and submission on the part of Apollo.

It’s a classic story of ‘biting off more than one can chew’ – accepting a challenge before one has had the proper training. A rite of passage can include a test. But it doesn’t have to. Marriages and funerals don’t normally include tests. But getting a doctoral degree certainly does.

I don’t know if the driving privilege should include a ceremony. I think it’s odd that becoming a driver requires a written and skills test but becoming a parent requires nothing at all. Not even a high school diploma.

- NoMan

Lizpete
Associate
Posts: 365
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:00 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA

Post by Lizpete »

Hmmm, so if becoming a parent requires "nothing at all" NoMan does that suggest a rite of passage have little to do with the individual and more about the tribe? We do typically celebrate at least "proper" pregnancies with parties/ showers- acknowledgment of the tribe something wonderful has happened. (And back to one of Clemsy's points that the greater community need be involved...)
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

noman
Associate
Posts: 670
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:26 am

Post by noman »

Being a man, Lizpete, I forgot about the baby shower, welcoming the woman into motherhood. I just don’t know about the proper ‘rites of passage’. But I know that they are somehow beneficial to both the initiate and the community. To think that we can do without them is a failure to appreciate the dynamics of sociology. One of our modern problems is to think only in terms of the individual; to think psychologically rather than sociologically. I remember reading of a professor of sociology that complained of the difficulty of getting his students to think socially. The emphasis on the individual is so powerful in our culture.

- NoMan

The Cove
Associate
Posts: 83
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:00 am

Post by The Cove »

Dusting off this thread for a quick observation. Rites are made and done wether or not they have been done before. It is a natural response to change. Be it biological, mental, physical, environmental change that happens to the individual, there will always rise an urge to mark that moment even if marking is nothing more than a thought. A rite of passage is a reflection of this.

Hence Lizpete's original question cannot be answered in a sense - because it is not a matter of choice but a matter of change.

Locked