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The Purpose of Rites of Passage

3 Pages 641 Words April 2015

According to a definition from an Oxford Dictionary a rite of a passage is, “A ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone’s life, especially birth, the transition from childhood to adulthood, marriage, and death”. A rite of a passage is a change or transition in someone’s life, like getting married or even becoming parents. A rite of passage consists of three stages and those stages being separation, liminal and aggregation. The first stage consist of being removed from ones original state in life. The second stage consists of the marginal stage, where someone’s identity is in flux. The last stage is recombination into a new state, with a new identity. A great example of a rite of passage in modern American Society would be a quinceanera.
According to most anthropologists, “citing Arnold van Gennep’s major work, “The Rites of Passage,” will say that rites of passage exist in order to consolidate social ties, establish roles, and give members of a group a sense of purpose and placement”. A quince in Latin American Countries is the moment when a girl becomes a woman. The moment the girl becomes a woman she is now responsible for work, volunteerism, or even marriage. The journey of her adult hood begins the moment her 15th birthday is celebrated. In the United States this is celebrated by throwing the young girl a sweet 15-birthday party. According to Fielding, “The tradition serves as a cultural and religious coming out party and denotes the Latina’s metamorphosis from child to woman”.
There are stages that happen before the quincenra and stages that happen after. Nicholls states these stages in a Washington Post article as being, “Traditionally, the birthday girl wears a formal gown, a jeweled tiara and her first pair of high heels. Like a bride, she is attended by a "court" of 14 friends -- seven boys and seven girls, in outfits that complement hers. The festivities include a church ceremony ...

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