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Traditions of Transition: Understanding Rites of Passage
 Each year, the Cultural Connections program explores a different cross-cultural theme as a window into understanding our rich cultural diversity in Chicago.
Over the 2003–04 program year, Cultural Connections partners explored reasons for cultural difference through the theme of Traditions of Transition: Understanding Rites of Passage. Every culture finds some way to mark changes in the cycle of life. It is important to help people make transitions between life stages in ways that are socially acceptable. Rites of passage play a vital role in all societies, from birth, to coming of age, to weddings, to death.
In his seminal work, Rites of Passage, anthropologist Arnold van Gennep identified three universal stages of the process. In the first stage – separation – the person going through the rite of passage is separated from the rest of their social group. Stage two – liminality – is the time of transition, between life stages and outside of the normal routines of daily life. At the final stage – reintegration – the person is rejoined with society in his or her new social role.
The rituals associated with the passages from one life phase to another are constantly being reshaped by the circumstances of our lives and the collective creativity we posses as a diverse society. Thus, this theme provoked participants to define and re-define culture and consider the ways in which it is learned, shared, and dynamic.
continue to Cultural Connections Event: "Celebrating Adulthood - Coming of Age in Jewish and Puerto Rican Communities" >>
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