Week 4- Cobb, Chapter 4

In reading the material about rites of passage (the ideas of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner), I was reminded of something that Chap Clark mentioned in one of his classes. Chap talked about how children used to have rites of passage through which to pass before entering adulthood. Now, however, kids have this lengthened period of adolescence, in many ways because there is not a ceremonial sending forth into the world of adults (there are many other factors, of course, not to be mentioned here). I found it remarkable, however, that there are many similarities to what Cobb described as the rites of passage (characterized by separation from a previous world, ordeals of liminality, and ceremonies of incorporation, a limbo period where one does not know where one fits, a loss of identity, communitas which are deep bonds created in the midst of the trauma of the  rite of passage)– all of these things are true to adolescence as well. Can we treat adolescents as those who are passing through these epic rites of passage, but understand that the time period has been extended to almost 15 years now?

Advertisement