The Rite

Okay, so I guess the transition of high school to college isn't exactly an original topic for this whole rite of passage thing, but it's all I've got so too bad. Step one of this rite, was high school. Or more specifically deciding in high school that I wasn't going to go to college. Upon graduation, my mission was complete. Step two would be the acquisition of a job. After wasting my time and money, or more specifically, my parents' time and money, for about six months, I decided the next logical step in my progression would be to get a job. I picked up a job soon after, working for the school system that I had spent most of my young life attempting to escape. God has a sense of humor it would seem. After two years of that bullshit, dealing with people I hate and sleeping in my cubicle, I decided I wanted out. I began to look for colleges. I noticed Columbia's acceptance rate. I was sold. I told my mom I was going to College. She responded with a laugh. A few months later I got the acceptance letter, told everybody to fuck off and leave me alone and drove halfway across the country to attend school. Now I am a man.

Moving up

A rite of passage that I have gone through would be getting a drivers license. The first phase that I went through would be the classroom learning. Where you are first learning about the rules and everything that getting your license involves. This is just the early stage and it is all very new. The second phase that I went through involved actually practicing driving. A very hands on stage but a very in between phase where you have most of the skills but are just waiting to be tested and racking up hours. The final stage of this transition is the actual test. This is where I proved that I learned all of the rules and can now go about driving on my own and I was then part of a new group.

Due Next Wednesday

I'll be handing this essay out in class today.

In the essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, Clifford Geertz tries to read Balinese ritual and actions like a text in order to decode the symbols in their society. Leni Reifenstahl, the director of the film “Triumph of the Will”, argued throughout her life that this film was not a Nazi propaganda film, but a documentary. How might a symbolic anthropologist, like Geertz, approach the question of whether this film was a form of Nazi propaganda or a documentary? That is, what do the scenes, colors, and images in the film tell you?

Starting out, starting over.

The right of passage of going to college is the best example I have of a right of passage experience I have been through. Other then my bat mitzvah that is, but the steps to that is a bit different! After I graduated high school and spent the summer at home working, I was off to Peoria Illinois to attend Bradley University. I began to experience the period of separation soon after I was all situated in my dorm and my parents drove off. I was excited and scared but mostly really happy. The college has a great welcome week to help new students become acclimated to their new environment away from home. My roommate and I, who I met at orientation, embarked on this new life together by attending the events, bbqs, parties etc. Since school didn’t start for a couple weeks we used our free time wisely, hanging out with other friends we met at orientation, exploring the campus and partaking in the mass consumption of alcohol and partying one can’t normally do in their parents house while in high school. I feel that the partying and free time to roam helps one deal with the period of separation very well. A few days before school started is when I would say the liminal period began. I picked up my books and found my classes, I had lived in the dorm for about a week and was now in routine as to where I kept my things, were I showered and got ready, where I ate or picked up my mail, all college ways of living. However, I wasn’t quite a college kid yet because I had never participated in a college class. Once classes started, I began to participate in the act of a college kid and after the first week or two of classes I began to transition into the third step to this right of passage. Although it was most likely official after I finished my first week of attending all classes, being assigned homework, and then participating in college activities that could symbolize the third step. Because all of these things means I am now assuming the role of a college student. The third step seems to drag out a while though, because you still have to experience first midterms and finals that can signify this as well. I never really felt homesick or out of place and feel that I transitioned fairly easily! I also then experienced these steps as I left Bradley and lived back at my parents attending a community college and then once again when i moved to the city to attened Columbia, and out of the three, the first was the easiest and best experience.

American's Life Timeline

When I first thought of a rite of passage that is familiar to me, the first thing I thought about was the timeline American society seems to live by. The first stage is college. I thought of this as the first stage because it seems like the first big step we make in beginning our lives on our own. The second is marriage. Marriage is the second large step we make in beginning another chapter in our lives. The third is retirement. After we've gone through the process of getting a college education, finding a job, getting married and having kids, the end chapter seems to be retirement. When you look at American society, most people live on this exact timeline and follow through these rites of passages. Each rite of passage shows that you are growing up. Based on what rite of passage a person is going through, it is simple to predict what age group one is in.

College

I suppose college is an American rite of passage. Not everyone goes through it but pop-culture considers it a substantial stage in ones life.

The first stage generally involves a separation from the family. One usually "goes away" for college and starts a new living arrangement either in a dorm or in an apartment for their first time. Along with this is the separation from high school, or a public school where the system of teaching is different from college level. Even if one doesn't "go away" for college, they are still separated from their previous and adapted lifestyle in high school. Or, if one takes time off between high school and college, they are still making a substantial separation from their previous lifestyle to go back to school.

During college they are forced to adapt to a new lifestyle among new people, in a new environment and expectations. They often have a new understanding of themselves during this time, either through social situations, or what they learn in classes. The individual eventually applies what they learn during college to goals and directions in life.

When one leaves college, the general expectation is to get a job, or to apply their knowledge toward a career. This is what culture assumes will happen although it doesn't always. Their social role as a "graduate" is either to use their degree or to then go back to college again to continue their education. Either way, society establishes an expected role for them every time someone asks, "what are you going to do with your major?"

My own rite of passage

When I was a child I was raised in the Mormon Church and subsequently left at the age of 18. However one rite of passage that stands out to me from my childhood is of the baptism. The Mormon church does their baptism at the age of 8, after they believe a child knows the difference between right and wrong.

In the first phase, people withdraw from the group and begin moving from one place or status to another. So in this case the child would know already what baptism is and start to become ready for it nearing their eighth birthday. Really its more of a mental thing than a physical one in this rite, and for an 8 year old it isn't really that substantial. However adults that convert go through the same process no matter the age so it can become more meaningful I guess the older you convert.

The next phase is one of cutting oneself off or being detached from the former self, in this case its as simple as maybe acting older or if an adult, dropping a long held habit of smoking or drinking perhaps.

The third phase of reentering the society happens after the actual baptism in water and the child is blessed with the holy spirit. They are now back in the society as a full member of the church.

Looking back at this ritual after leaving the church for 5 years I can see it more as a ritual based on many old beliefs. I guess I see it as an outsider now instead of an insider, and there is quite a difference.