Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage

Rites of passage is briefly defined as a ritual event that marks a person’s transition from one status to another and according to Arnold van Gennep is “a universal structuring device in human societies” (Bowie, 2004: 161) which most people have gone through or experienced in some way or another. “All rites of passage have a threefold structure” (Bowie, 2004: 152) namely the first stage being a ‘separation’ from the previous state and moving into the middle stage mainly known as the “liminal” stage, this stage is confusing as the person is not part of anything, they have no standing or status in society yet as they have been separated from their previous status but have not yet gained the knowledge of the new ways of living, hence it is also called the ‘betwixt and between’ stage. Lastly, after the liminal phase one gets incorporated back into society but in a transformed state with the new knowledge gained from the liminal stage. Rituals and ceremonies normally take place during the rites of passage to witness and celebrate the initiates having gone through the threefold structure into their new stage of life. In this essay I hope to explain ‘liminality’ according to Victor Turner, especially through my own personal experience of the ‘betwixt and between’ stage of a rite of passage.

Arnold van Gennep said that life does not happen at a uniform rate and that it consists of different stages and at each stage a rite of passage takes place which then in itself consists of stages as mentioned earlier- rites of separation, transition and incorporation. A rite of separation can occur for instance with the Venda girl’s initiation: during the “Vhusha” initiation the girls who have started their first menstruation is separated from the community during this ritual period until they have been taught by ritual elders in the ‘liminal’ phase. Victor Turner however borrowed Van Gennep’s idea of liminality to use as his main focus in his workings with the...