Life-cycle ceremonies are found in all societies, although their relative importance varies. The ritual counterparts of the biological crises of the life cycle include numerous kinds of rites celebrating childbirth, ranging from “baby showers” and rites of pregnancy to rites observed at the actual time of childbirth and, as exemplified by the Christian sacrament of baptism and the fading rite of churching of women, to a ceremony of thanksgiving for mothers soon after childbirth. These rites involve the parents as well as the child and in some societies include the couvade, which in its so-called classic form centres ritual attention at childbirth upon the father rather than the mother. At this time the father follows elaborate rules of ritual procedure that may include taking to bed, simulating labour pains, and symbolically enacting the successful birth of a child.

In all societies some ritual observances surround childbirth, marriage, and death, though the degree of elaboration of the rites varies greatly even among societies of comparable levels of cultural development. Rites at coming-of-age are the most variable in time in the life span and may be present or absent. In some societies such rites are observed for only one sex, are elaborate for one sex and simple for the other, or are not observed for either sex. Characteristically, rites at coming-of-age are not generally observed in modern industrial and postindustrial societies. For example, the Jewish bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah and Protestant confirmation are, in their current forms, more or less vestiges of formerly important religious rites. Similarly, in East Asia, performances of rites at coming-of-age have waned in recent times. The elaborate rites observed a century ago in Japan, for example, when young men and young women reached social maturity are only rarely observed today and are virtually unknown to the general population.

Death is given social attention in all societies, and the observances are generally religious in intent and import. In societies that fear dead bodies, the deceased may be abandoned, but they are nevertheless the focus of ritual attention. Most commonly, rites at death are elaborate, and they include clearly all of the stages of separation, transition, and reincorporation first noted by van Gennep.

Ceremonies of social transformation

Ceremonies of social transformation include all the life-cycle ceremonies, since these involve social transitions for the subjects of the ritual and also for other persons. A man or woman who dies, for example, assumes a new social role as a spirit that may be socially important to the living, the bereaved spouse becomes a widow or widower, and the children have an unnamed but changed status as lacking one parent.

A vast number of rites of social transformation, such as rites of initiation into common-interest societies, have no direct or primary connection with biological changes, however. These are abundant in the United States and in Europe, usually as secular ceremonies. In lineage-based or tribal societies, rites of this kind mark induction into age-graded societies, principally limited to males, and a variety of common-interest societies such as warrior societies, curing societies (special groups whose purpose is to cure illnesses), and graded men’s societies that are hierarchically ranked in prestige. Whether hereditary or achieved by appointment or election, assumption of important office in various kinds of societies is often observed by elaborate ritual. Any other events involving changes in social status tend to become the subjects of institutionalized ritual, which is then a prerequisite for the new status. Common examples are initiation ceremonies of college fraternities, sororities, and honorary societies; adult fraternal societies; and social groups of other kinds centred on common interests. Other social changes of importance that apply to a substantial number of people but do not involve initiation into organized social groups are also given ritual attention. Common among these are graduation exercises, festivities marking retirement from work, and various kinds of award ceremonies.

Ceremonies of religious transformation

Religious transformation ceremonies signal changes in religious status, which may be matters of the greatest importance to the people. Making sacrifices and offerings are rituals that may be required in the normal course of life; further, these acts may be regarded as conferring a new religious status or state of grace. Sacrifices are a frequent feature of rites of passage, and important ceremonies like the coronations and funerals of rulers have sometimes required the sacrifice of many human beings. Among the laity, entry into a religious society or the assumption of any other new religious role is customarily an event celebrated by such rites as those of baptism and confirmation. Among professional religious personnel, the achievement of any distinct status of specialization is ordinarily observed by rites corresponding to the Christian rites of ordination—the rites through which religious functionaries become entitled to exercise their respective functions. As with other rites of passage, these rites may be simple or complex, and their degree of complexity may generally be easily seen as reflecting the religious and social importance of the newly acquired status. A single element of an elaborate rite in one society, such as circumcision or the dressing of the hair in a distinctive way, may in another society be the central or sole event of rites of either social or religious transformation. These ceremonies may, accordingly, be called rites of circumcision or be identified by the name of the style of hairdress.

Other ceremonies

The term rites of passage is applied occasionally to institutionalized rites for curing serious illness and rarely to cyclic ceremonies like harvest festivals. No new social or religious status is ordinarily gained by recovery from illness or participation in harvest rites, however, and these ceremonies have probably been included among the rites of passage because of similarities in their ritual procedures. In some societies recovery from a very critical illness is regarded as a divine sign that the erstwhile invalid should assume the role of a religious specialist, but rites of ordination are quite separate. Some elements of ceremonies pertaining to changes in the seasons may be seen as incorporating acts of separation and incorporation, symbolically saying goodbye to the old season and welcoming the new, but these are not customarily called rites of passage.

Divorce, although clearly denoting a change in social status, has rarely been regarded as a rite of passage. Festive observances at this time are perhaps common in some societies, but they are often informal practices of the individual or simple acts of local custom, such as discarding wedding rings, that are not institutionalized in the entire society. The absence of divorce from the conventional roster of rites of passage illustrates an outstanding characteristic of this class of rites: all celebrate events that are either socially approved or, like death and illness, unavoidable. Rites of passage that signal the assumption of social statuses disapproved by society are both out of keeping with the prevailing interpretation of the rites as being socially supportive and would broaden them to cover such events as trials by jury and commitment to prison for serious crimes.

Symbolic aspects of ceremonies

Whatever their subclassification, elaborate rites of passage are commonly rich in symbolism that prominently includes representations of the states of separation and transition and, especially, insignia of the new status. Most common among these markers of new status are alterations and embellishments of visible or invisible parts of the body, distinctive garments and bodily decorations, and insignias corresponding to symbols of office. All parts of the body that may be altered or embellished without ordinarily causing serious disability have served as the symbols of social statuses and have been elements of rites of passage. Outstanding among these insignias are special styles of hairdress, clothing, and ornaments; the filing, staining, and removal of teeth; the wearing of ornaments in pierced ears, noses, or lips; tattoos or their counterpart of scarification, which produces designs in relief; and circumcision or other genital operations (see religious dress).

Several motifs or themes of symbolism commonly recur among societies widely separated from each other geographically and culturally. One such theme symbolizes death and rebirth into the new status. Initiates may be ceremonially “killed” in a simulated sacrifice and then made symbolically to act like infants who, during the rites, are made to mature into their new statuses. Another common form of symbolism makes use of doors or other portals that signify entry into the new social domain. Ordeals are a rather common feature of coming-of-age ceremonies for both males and females, and they are also used in rites of initiation into men’s societies of various kinds. Success in passing the ordeals is customary and signifies mastery of the roles that are to be assumed.

A universal feature of rites of passage is the proscription of certain kinds of ordinary behaviour. Sexual continence is a common rule, as is the prohibition of ordinary work such as farming, hunting, and fishing. Many rites prohibit certain behaviour or prescribe the reverse of ordinary behaviour. Among Native Americans of the western United States, for example, a taboo against scratching the body with the fingers was common during ritual periods. In other societies, ritual behaviour required that the subjects of ritual sit in a remarkable fashion, wear articles of clothing inside out or backward, or wear the clothing of the opposite sex. These acts all may be seen as dramatizations, by contrast, of the events that they celebrate, thereby making them memorable.

The early work of the British anthropologists Victor Turner and Mary Douglas paid particular attention to ritual symbols. Turner investigated the use of symbols in rites of passage and other rituals. According to him, the symbols developed and employed within social systems represent oppositions, tensions, and cleavages that rites were designed to resolve. Douglas highlighted the ways in which the human body serves as a “natural symbol” of pollution and purity during rites of passage and other rituals within social systems based on taboo. Through altering or embellishing the body during the course of a rite, the body becomes “inscribed” with meaning through which a society communicates whether an individual or group is considered polluted or pure.

A representative example

Rites of passage marking very important events customarily include all three stages described by van Gennep: separation, transition, and reincorporation. A representative example is afforded by the traditional rites surrounding childbirth as these were commonly observed in Japan until the mid-20th century. Observances began when a woman learned she was pregnant. Partly for stated reasons of promoting health and partly for supernaturalistic reasons, she thenceforth abstained from certain foods and ate others. During the fifth month of pregnancy she donned a special girdle, ordinarily procured from a Buddhist temple and supernaturally blessed. Relatives offered prayers for the well-being of the woman and her child.

When birth seemed imminent, she was isolated from all other persons except the women who attended her. She then remained in isolation for a fixed number of days after parturition. This period was most commonly 33 days, divided into stages proceeding from severe restriction of her acts to final complete resumption of all normal activities. At first she had to follow a number of special rules of diet and could not perform normal household tasks. During the period of isolation, the mother was regarded as polluted from the flow of blood during childbirth and therefore dangerous to other people and dangerous or offensive to supernatural beings of the Shintō religious pantheon. She could not make the usual offerings or say prayers before the household shrines to Shintō gods or have any other kind of contact with them. To avoid offending the sun goddess, her clothing and that of her child when laundered could never be hung in direct sunlight to dry but instead were placed in the shadows of the eaves of the house. For the same reason, she covered her head with a cloth when she stepped outside the house near the end of the period of isolation. Water and cloths used in washing the mother after parturition were considered polluted and were buried in the ground beneath the floor of the room of confinement.

After a fixed number of days passed, the mother was permitted to resume bathing and again perform some, but not all, of her ordinary work in the house. Other restrictions on behaviour were removed at fixed times. When the full period had passed, the mother and her female aides performed a ceremony of purification by sprinkling salt on the mother and on the floors of the dwelling. The beginning of a new, normal period free from pollution was also symbolized by kindling a new fire in the household cooking stove. Now ready to return to normal life, the mother ate a ceremonial meal with other members of the family and resumed ordinary relationships with supernatural beings and other members of the community.