Hans H. Penner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195385823
- eISBN:
- 9780199870073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385823.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter continues the interpretation and analysis started in Chapter 18 of the legends as “rites of passage.” The distinguishing character of the legends as such a rite in Buddhism is ...
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This chapter continues the interpretation and analysis started in Chapter 18 of the legends as “rites of passage.” The distinguishing character of the legends as such a rite in Buddhism is asceticism. The legends of Part I, Vessantara, the Buddha, and the Universal Monarch, are the test cases for the interpretation.Less
This chapter continues the interpretation and analysis started in Chapter 18 of the legends as “rites of passage.” The distinguishing character of the legends as such a rite in Buddhism is asceticism. The legends of Part I, Vessantara, the Buddha, and the Universal Monarch, are the test cases for the interpretation.
Nikki Bado-Fralick
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195166453
- eISBN:
- 9780199835799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195166450.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book offers an ethnographic study of the initiation ritual practiced by one coven of Witches located in Ohio. As a High Priestess within the coven as well as a scholar of religion, the author of ...
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This book offers an ethnographic study of the initiation ritual practiced by one coven of Witches located in Ohio. As a High Priestess within the coven as well as a scholar of religion, the author of this book is in a unique position to contribute to our understanding of this ceremony and the tradition to which it belongs. The book's analysis of this coven's initiation ceremony offers an important challenge to the commonly accepted model of “rites of passage.” Rather than a single linear event, initiation is deeply embedded within a total process of becoming a Witch in practice and in community with others. This book expands our concept of initiation while giving us insight into one coven's practice of Wicca and introduces readers to the contemporary nature religion variously called Wicca, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, or the Craft.Less
This book offers an ethnographic study of the initiation ritual practiced by one coven of Witches located in Ohio. As a High Priestess within the coven as well as a scholar of religion, the author of this book is in a unique position to contribute to our understanding of this ceremony and the tradition to which it belongs. The book's analysis of this coven's initiation ceremony offers an important challenge to the commonly accepted model of “rites of passage.” Rather than a single linear event, initiation is deeply embedded within a total process of becoming a Witch in practice and in community with others. This book expands our concept of initiation while giving us insight into one coven's practice of Wicca and introduces readers to the contemporary nature religion variously called Wicca, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, or the Craft.
Thomas B. Dozeman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195367331
- eISBN:
- 9780199867417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367331.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Here I interpret the role of Moses in Torah as personifying the authority of ordination, characterized as the Mosaic Office. The section “The Mosaic Office in Torah” clarifies the corporate nature of ...
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Here I interpret the role of Moses in Torah as personifying the authority of ordination, characterized as the Mosaic Office. The section “The Mosaic Office in Torah” clarifies the corporate nature of the story of Moses as the model for ordination in ancient Israel. “The Mosaic Office as a Rite of Passage” describes the character of religious leadership in Torah, contrasting the leadership of the ordained to the heroic idealization of kings in the ancient world. “The Call to Ordination and the Two Theories of Holiness” probes the nature of religious experience embedded in the story of Moses, providing guidelines for discerning a call to ordination.Less
Here I interpret the role of Moses in Torah as personifying the authority of ordination, characterized as the Mosaic Office. The section “The Mosaic Office in Torah” clarifies the corporate nature of the story of Moses as the model for ordination in ancient Israel. “The Mosaic Office as a Rite of Passage” describes the character of religious leadership in Torah, contrasting the leadership of the ordained to the heroic idealization of kings in the ancient world. “The Call to Ordination and the Two Theories of Holiness” probes the nature of religious experience embedded in the story of Moses, providing guidelines for discerning a call to ordination.
Thomas B. Dozeman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195367331
- eISBN:
- 9780199867417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367331.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter interprets the nature of holiness from three different perspectives. First, the research of M. Eliade is used to holiness as an essential characteristic of God. The root meaning of ...
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This chapter interprets the nature of holiness from three different perspectives. First, the research of M. Eliade is used to holiness as an essential characteristic of God. The root meaning of holiness, separation, gives rise to the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Second it explores the important role of sanctuaries for relating the sacred and the profane in religious experience, using A. van Gennep's insight that the ordained must undergo a rite of passage to work within the realm of the sacred. Third, the research of R. Otto and J. Milgrom is used to investigate two theories of holiness (as a dynamic power and as a ritual resource), that inform all biblical theologies of ordination.Less
This chapter interprets the nature of holiness from three different perspectives. First, the research of M. Eliade is used to holiness as an essential characteristic of God. The root meaning of holiness, separation, gives rise to the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Second it explores the important role of sanctuaries for relating the sacred and the profane in religious experience, using A. van Gennep's insight that the ordained must undergo a rite of passage to work within the realm of the sacred. Third, the research of R. Otto and J. Milgrom is used to investigate two theories of holiness (as a dynamic power and as a ritual resource), that inform all biblical theologies of ordination.
Letizia Paoli
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195157246
- eISBN:
- 9780199943982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157246.003.0020
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta gain much of their strength through reliance on a premodern contractual form. On entering a mafia family, the new member underwrites what Max Weber called a “status ...
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Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta gain much of their strength through reliance on a premodern contractual form. On entering a mafia family, the new member underwrites what Max Weber called a “status contract,” which is also a “fraternization contract,” as the members of a mafia cosca are obliged to consider themselves brothers. The key value of the mafia subuniverse of meaning—that set of cultural codes, rituals, and norms through which mafia associations justify their existence and impose a new status on their associates—is honor. The ceremony of mafia initiation is comprised of the three phases making up a rite of passage: “separation,” “transition,” and “incorporation.” Mafia initiation rites are not only rites of passage. By solemnly staging the stepping over of a line establishing a fundamental division in the social order, the ceremonies of mafia affiliation are also “rites of institution.” Though real life is often very different, relationships among Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta associates are prescriptively a form of communitas.Less
Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta gain much of their strength through reliance on a premodern contractual form. On entering a mafia family, the new member underwrites what Max Weber called a “status contract,” which is also a “fraternization contract,” as the members of a mafia cosca are obliged to consider themselves brothers. The key value of the mafia subuniverse of meaning—that set of cultural codes, rituals, and norms through which mafia associations justify their existence and impose a new status on their associates—is honor. The ceremony of mafia initiation is comprised of the three phases making up a rite of passage: “separation,” “transition,” and “incorporation.” Mafia initiation rites are not only rites of passage. By solemnly staging the stepping over of a line establishing a fundamental division in the social order, the ceremonies of mafia affiliation are also “rites of institution.” Though real life is often very different, relationships among Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta associates are prescriptively a form of communitas.
Angela Smith
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183983
- eISBN:
- 9780191674167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183983.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In an unfinished story by Katherine Mansfield called ‘Weak Heart’, an adolescent boy hurtles away from a funeral and runs back to the home of the girl who has just been buried. This chapter pivots on ...
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In an unfinished story by Katherine Mansfield called ‘Weak Heart’, an adolescent boy hurtles away from a funeral and runs back to the home of the girl who has just been buried. This chapter pivots on literal and metaphorical voyages made by girls and young women in the fiction of Mansfield and Virginia Woolf, beginning with works that they wrote before they met and read each other’s writing, The Urewera Notebook, ‘The Woman at the Store’, ‘The Wind Blows’, and The Voyage Out, and then looking at the thematically similar stories they produced at the time when their relationship with each other was at its most influential, ‘The Garden Party’ and ‘Kew Gardens’. Various tropes are repeated within these voyages and journeys: pianos, the sea, and encounters with indigenous people that raise the complex question of colonialism in the writings of Woolf and Mansfield. The fiction by Woolf and Mansfield concerning journeys and rites of passage explores what Julia Kristeva describes as being strangers to ourselves, our own foreignness.Less
In an unfinished story by Katherine Mansfield called ‘Weak Heart’, an adolescent boy hurtles away from a funeral and runs back to the home of the girl who has just been buried. This chapter pivots on literal and metaphorical voyages made by girls and young women in the fiction of Mansfield and Virginia Woolf, beginning with works that they wrote before they met and read each other’s writing, The Urewera Notebook, ‘The Woman at the Store’, ‘The Wind Blows’, and The Voyage Out, and then looking at the thematically similar stories they produced at the time when their relationship with each other was at its most influential, ‘The Garden Party’ and ‘Kew Gardens’. Various tropes are repeated within these voyages and journeys: pianos, the sea, and encounters with indigenous people that raise the complex question of colonialism in the writings of Woolf and Mansfield. The fiction by Woolf and Mansfield concerning journeys and rites of passage explores what Julia Kristeva describes as being strangers to ourselves, our own foreignness.
Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637980
- eISBN:
- 9780748670758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637980.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Among the many places of worship that could be found in the territory of the city of Athens and its chôra during the classical period, several offer remarkable configurations of nature: the sanctuary ...
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Among the many places of worship that could be found in the territory of the city of Athens and its chôra during the classical period, several offer remarkable configurations of nature: the sanctuary of Aphrodite of the Gardens on the slope of the Acropolis with its flowery meadow, the green field in Eleusis for the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries in honour of Demeter and Persephone, the olive tree sacred to Athena near the Erechtheion, groves and running water at Brauron where young Athenian girls played the bear in honour of Artemis, etc. Often actualised in the tragedies of Euripides, the aetiological legends that constitute the foundations of these cults help to associate the relevant divinity with a hero or heroine. This combination is the starting point of a discussion of the identities of the gods in a polytheist system and their modifications through the association of a heroic partner.Less
Among the many places of worship that could be found in the territory of the city of Athens and its chôra during the classical period, several offer remarkable configurations of nature: the sanctuary of Aphrodite of the Gardens on the slope of the Acropolis with its flowery meadow, the green field in Eleusis for the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries in honour of Demeter and Persephone, the olive tree sacred to Athena near the Erechtheion, groves and running water at Brauron where young Athenian girls played the bear in honour of Artemis, etc. Often actualised in the tragedies of Euripides, the aetiological legends that constitute the foundations of these cults help to associate the relevant divinity with a hero or heroine. This combination is the starting point of a discussion of the identities of the gods in a polytheist system and their modifications through the association of a heroic partner.
Daniel Krebs
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693627
- eISBN:
- 9780191741258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693627.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This case study on German subsidy troops fighting in the American War of Independence understands surrender as a ritual performance, turning defeated soldiers into symbolic capital. If the ritual was ...
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This case study on German subsidy troops fighting in the American War of Independence understands surrender as a ritual performance, turning defeated soldiers into symbolic capital. If the ritual was staged as a rite of passage, as at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781, it provided the vanquished with a safe and respectable transition from the state of armed soldiers to that of unarmed prisoners of war. The victors, in turn, gained an opportunity to demonstrate and communicate their success within their own ranks and a wider public. The observance of rigidly structured rituals guaranteed that the surrender, this dangerous bargain between victors and vanquished, actually succeeded. When rites of passage were missing, as happened at Trenton and many other battles and skirmishes, defeated soldiers were nervous about their future in enemy hands and violence toward prisoners became a distinct possibility.Less
This case study on German subsidy troops fighting in the American War of Independence understands surrender as a ritual performance, turning defeated soldiers into symbolic capital. If the ritual was staged as a rite of passage, as at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781, it provided the vanquished with a safe and respectable transition from the state of armed soldiers to that of unarmed prisoners of war. The victors, in turn, gained an opportunity to demonstrate and communicate their success within their own ranks and a wider public. The observance of rigidly structured rituals guaranteed that the surrender, this dangerous bargain between victors and vanquished, actually succeeded. When rites of passage were missing, as happened at Trenton and many other battles and skirmishes, defeated soldiers were nervous about their future in enemy hands and violence toward prisoners became a distinct possibility.
FELICITY HEAL
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198269243
- eISBN:
- 9780191602412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269242.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Finally, the experience of the people of the British Isles in the half-century after the political reformations is considered. The parish ministry in Scotland and England is compared, as is the use ...
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Finally, the experience of the people of the British Isles in the half-century after the political reformations is considered. The parish ministry in Scotland and England is compared, as is the use of churches, the nature of the liturgy and the practice of discipline. The text concludes with an attempt to understand what sort of Protestants emerged from the crises of the century.Less
Finally, the experience of the people of the British Isles in the half-century after the political reformations is considered. The parish ministry in Scotland and England is compared, as is the use of churches, the nature of the liturgy and the practice of discipline. The text concludes with an attempt to understand what sort of Protestants emerged from the crises of the century.
Avner Ben-Amos
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203285
- eISBN:
- 9780191675836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203285.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In France, the 1789 Revolution brought about the ‘transfer of the sacred’ from the Church to the State with its two aspects: the Republic, as a legal-political ‘grid’ concept, and the Fatherland, as ...
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In France, the 1789 Revolution brought about the ‘transfer of the sacred’ from the Church to the State with its two aspects: the Republic, as a legal-political ‘grid’ concept, and the Fatherland, as an ethnic-cultural ‘group’ concept. Ceremonies are more than ‘symbolic mirrors of ourselves’ that merely reflect the power relations within a society. They are themselves part of power, which they both express and create. How did the state funerals of the Third Republic perform this dual role? In order to understand the inner mechanism of these ceremonies, it is necessary to analyse them as rites of passage that follow death. For the public, the state funeral also became a rite of passage in the form of a multiple pilgrimage: to the place where the great man lay in state, to the procession, and to the tomb. The state funeral was the point where two different rites of passage coalesced: that of the great man and that of the people who participated in the ceremony.Less
In France, the 1789 Revolution brought about the ‘transfer of the sacred’ from the Church to the State with its two aspects: the Republic, as a legal-political ‘grid’ concept, and the Fatherland, as an ethnic-cultural ‘group’ concept. Ceremonies are more than ‘symbolic mirrors of ourselves’ that merely reflect the power relations within a society. They are themselves part of power, which they both express and create. How did the state funerals of the Third Republic perform this dual role? In order to understand the inner mechanism of these ceremonies, it is necessary to analyse them as rites of passage that follow death. For the public, the state funeral also became a rite of passage in the form of a multiple pilgrimage: to the place where the great man lay in state, to the procession, and to the tomb. The state funeral was the point where two different rites of passage coalesced: that of the great man and that of the people who participated in the ceremony.
David G. Blumenkrantz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190297336
- eISBN:
- 9780190297367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190297336.003.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
The introduction offers an overview of the conditions facing children, introduces the concept of rites of passage and how it has been misunderstood and misused in contemporary media and programs. It ...
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The introduction offers an overview of the conditions facing children, introduces the concept of rites of passage and how it has been misunderstood and misused in contemporary media and programs. It sets forth the landscape of the book and central questions that are explored and answered, such as, How do we help our children grow up well? What do rites of passage have to do with this in a diverse, multicultural society? What are rites of passage? Why are they important, and what is their purpose? If it takes a whole village to raise a child, as the ancient proverb says, what are the consequences of not having villages anymore? Can a society have a psychological sense of community without community rituals like rites of passage? And can rites of passage exist in a society without a sense of community?Less
The introduction offers an overview of the conditions facing children, introduces the concept of rites of passage and how it has been misunderstood and misused in contemporary media and programs. It sets forth the landscape of the book and central questions that are explored and answered, such as, How do we help our children grow up well? What do rites of passage have to do with this in a diverse, multicultural society? What are rites of passage? Why are they important, and what is their purpose? If it takes a whole village to raise a child, as the ancient proverb says, what are the consequences of not having villages anymore? Can a society have a psychological sense of community without community rituals like rites of passage? And can rites of passage exist in a society without a sense of community?
Paul Christopher Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150582
- eISBN:
- 9780199834358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195150589.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Shifts attention to the contemporary ritual practice of secrecy, focusing especially on initiation as a rite of passage. The chapter addresses (1) how secrecy is communicated and expressed spatially, ...
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Shifts attention to the contemporary ritual practice of secrecy, focusing especially on initiation as a rite of passage. The chapter addresses (1) how secrecy is communicated and expressed spatially, (2) how that concept of a space of secrecy is transmitted from the group to arriving individuals and reproduced in the “closed bodies” of individuals sealed by initiation, and (3) how the reproduction of secrecy relies upon and incorporates coordinates of national legitimacy created between 1890 and 1940 to mark the spatial progression of the initiate. It is demonstrated that secrecy has less to do with the restriction of information than with bodily containment and the making of a “closed body” (corpo fechado).Less
Shifts attention to the contemporary ritual practice of secrecy, focusing especially on initiation as a rite of passage. The chapter addresses (1) how secrecy is communicated and expressed spatially, (2) how that concept of a space of secrecy is transmitted from the group to arriving individuals and reproduced in the “closed bodies” of individuals sealed by initiation, and (3) how the reproduction of secrecy relies upon and incorporates coordinates of national legitimacy created between 1890 and 1940 to mark the spatial progression of the initiate. It is demonstrated that secrecy has less to do with the restriction of information than with bodily containment and the making of a “closed body” (corpo fechado).
Rainer Rother
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813175416
- eISBN:
- 9780813175447
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813175416.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, Military History
Rainer Rother traces the symbolic meaning of the Unknown Soldier of the First World War. Describing national ceremonies of the interment of the Unknown Soldier, primarily those of Britain and France, ...
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Rainer Rother traces the symbolic meaning of the Unknown Soldier of the First World War. Describing national ceremonies of the interment of the Unknown Soldier, primarily those of Britain and France, the chapter explores the significance of the Unknown Soldier in terms of his connection to the ethnographic concept of ritual, particularly rites of passage.Less
Rainer Rother traces the symbolic meaning of the Unknown Soldier of the First World War. Describing national ceremonies of the interment of the Unknown Soldier, primarily those of Britain and France, the chapter explores the significance of the Unknown Soldier in terms of his connection to the ethnographic concept of ritual, particularly rites of passage.
Andrew D. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381908
- eISBN:
- 9781781382356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381908.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
The chapter discusses the aspects of ekphrases of iconic (world famous) photographs. Using Arnold Van Gennep’s study into the rites of passage, it describes this sort of ekphrasis as one that entails ...
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The chapter discusses the aspects of ekphrases of iconic (world famous) photographs. Using Arnold Van Gennep’s study into the rites of passage, it describes this sort of ekphrasis as one that entails certain rites of passage into visual culture. The poets examined are Sharon Olds, Kate Daniels, Louis de Paor and Ernesto Cardenal.Less
The chapter discusses the aspects of ekphrases of iconic (world famous) photographs. Using Arnold Van Gennep’s study into the rites of passage, it describes this sort of ekphrasis as one that entails certain rites of passage into visual culture. The poets examined are Sharon Olds, Kate Daniels, Louis de Paor and Ernesto Cardenal.
Julian Rivers
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226108
- eISBN:
- 9780191594243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226108.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter gathers together a variety of ways in which collective religious rites come to have legal significance. After touching briefly on historic examples of sanctuary and confession, it ...
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This chapter gathers together a variety of ways in which collective religious rites come to have legal significance. After touching briefly on historic examples of sanctuary and confession, it considers rites of passage such as baptism and naming ceremonies, circumcision, marriage and divorce, burial and cremation. Dietary requirements including the regulation of ritual slaughter and legal responses to cannabis usage are covered. Legal problems arising from unconventional worship in terms of planning control, noise pollution and nuisance, access to ancient monuments, and the advertising of spiritualist services are discussed. The conclusion drawn from this rather heterogeneous collection is that the accommodation and regulation of religious rites is highly pragmatic. It covers a wide-range of religions and uses diverse legal techniques. However, the judicial contribution is small.Less
This chapter gathers together a variety of ways in which collective religious rites come to have legal significance. After touching briefly on historic examples of sanctuary and confession, it considers rites of passage such as baptism and naming ceremonies, circumcision, marriage and divorce, burial and cremation. Dietary requirements including the regulation of ritual slaughter and legal responses to cannabis usage are covered. Legal problems arising from unconventional worship in terms of planning control, noise pollution and nuisance, access to ancient monuments, and the advertising of spiritualist services are discussed. The conclusion drawn from this rather heterogeneous collection is that the accommodation and regulation of religious rites is highly pragmatic. It covers a wide-range of religions and uses diverse legal techniques. However, the judicial contribution is small.
Robbi E. Davis-Floyd
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520229327
- eISBN:
- 9780520927216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520229327.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on childbirth in the U.S. It shows that the pregnancy/childbirth process has been culturally transformed into a male-dominated initiatory rite of ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on childbirth in the U.S. It shows that the pregnancy/childbirth process has been culturally transformed into a male-dominated initiatory rite of passage through which birth women are taught about the superiority and necessity of the relationship between science, technology, patriarchy, and institutions. It contends that the salvation of society which seeks to deny women their power as birth-givers will arise from the women who, nevertheless, give that society birth.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on childbirth in the U.S. It shows that the pregnancy/childbirth process has been culturally transformed into a male-dominated initiatory rite of passage through which birth women are taught about the superiority and necessity of the relationship between science, technology, patriarchy, and institutions. It contends that the salvation of society which seeks to deny women their power as birth-givers will arise from the women who, nevertheless, give that society birth.
Avner Ben-Amos
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203285
- eISBN:
- 9780191675836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203285.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Rituals that have transformative power in modern society are rituals of presentation, which operate upon the social order by their sheer magnitude. However, they are capable of achieving the required ...
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Rituals that have transformative power in modern society are rituals of presentation, which operate upon the social order by their sheer magnitude. However, they are capable of achieving the required scale only with the help of bureaucracy, which can mobilize the necessary resources and manipulate categories of time and space with relatively little effort. The state funerals of the Third Republic were such rites of presentation whose power resided in their rich and varied display. In this respect, they resembled the other civic festivals of the Third Republic, which were also ceremonies whose effects depended upon their magnificence. As a personal rite of passage, the state funeral was both a ritual of presentation and transformation, amplified through the workings of state bureaucracy. Transformation occurred during the middle, transitional phase, which included the procession from the place of lying-in-state to the place of burial. The state funeral took place not only in sacred time, but also in sacred space. The crowd, amassed along the route of the procession, were participants and spectators.Less
Rituals that have transformative power in modern society are rituals of presentation, which operate upon the social order by their sheer magnitude. However, they are capable of achieving the required scale only with the help of bureaucracy, which can mobilize the necessary resources and manipulate categories of time and space with relatively little effort. The state funerals of the Third Republic were such rites of presentation whose power resided in their rich and varied display. In this respect, they resembled the other civic festivals of the Third Republic, which were also ceremonies whose effects depended upon their magnificence. As a personal rite of passage, the state funeral was both a ritual of presentation and transformation, amplified through the workings of state bureaucracy. Transformation occurred during the middle, transitional phase, which included the procession from the place of lying-in-state to the place of burial. The state funeral took place not only in sacred time, but also in sacred space. The crowd, amassed along the route of the procession, were participants and spectators.
David A. Yamane
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199964987
- eISBN:
- 9780199363452
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199964987.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
How is religious tradition brought into modern society and transformed by modern social forces? Becoming Catholic approaches this broad question through an examination of the process by which ...
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How is religious tradition brought into modern society and transformed by modern social forces? Becoming Catholic approaches this broad question through an examination of the process by which individuals become Catholic in a late-modern society: the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). In focusing attention on the parishes that implement this rite of passage and the individuals who go through it, the story of the RCIA provides a window onto the Catholic tradition as it is carried through the flux of modernity. This book argues that “Catholic” is not just a box to be checked, but an identity to be achieved through a lengthy liturgical and formational process that both follows and departs from the pattern found by Arnold van Gennep in his famous studies of rites of passage. The initiation process itself is implemented differently from parish to parish and therefore provides insight into the lived reality of Catholicism as it is produced at the local level. Themes highlighted in the book include: conversion as moral action, explicit and hidden curricula in catechesis, liturgy and experience, identity formation, and objective and subjective incorporation.Less
How is religious tradition brought into modern society and transformed by modern social forces? Becoming Catholic approaches this broad question through an examination of the process by which individuals become Catholic in a late-modern society: the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). In focusing attention on the parishes that implement this rite of passage and the individuals who go through it, the story of the RCIA provides a window onto the Catholic tradition as it is carried through the flux of modernity. This book argues that “Catholic” is not just a box to be checked, but an identity to be achieved through a lengthy liturgical and formational process that both follows and departs from the pattern found by Arnold van Gennep in his famous studies of rites of passage. The initiation process itself is implemented differently from parish to parish and therefore provides insight into the lived reality of Catholicism as it is produced at the local level. Themes highlighted in the book include: conversion as moral action, explicit and hidden curricula in catechesis, liturgy and experience, identity formation, and objective and subjective incorporation.
Stephen M. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190222826
- eISBN:
- 9780190222840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190222826.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The introductory chapter serves three purposes: to establish the need for a study of male maturation in contemporary biblical scholarship, to present the methodological principles used to identify ...
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The introductory chapter serves three purposes: to establish the need for a study of male maturation in contemporary biblical scholarship, to present the methodological principles used to identify the presence of the male coming-of-age theme, and to articulate the book’s goals. In making the case for the book’s importance, this chapter argues that male maturation stories provide unique insight into a society’s masculine ideals. Moreover, the introduction notes that, despite scholars’ frequent exegetical application of the concept of rites of passage to biblical texts, no study before this one has applied this concept in a thorough way to the topic of coming of age, a topic to which rites of passage are uniquely well suited. After discussing the principles that guide the effort to locate the coming-of-age theme, the introductory chapter concludes by defining the book's goals. The primary goal is to identify the presence of the coming-of-age theme in the Hebrew Bible. The secondary goals are to consider how this theme is employed in the HB to highlight important messages and transitions in biblical historical narratives, and to demonstrate how these stories provide insight into representations of biblical masculinity.Less
The introductory chapter serves three purposes: to establish the need for a study of male maturation in contemporary biblical scholarship, to present the methodological principles used to identify the presence of the male coming-of-age theme, and to articulate the book’s goals. In making the case for the book’s importance, this chapter argues that male maturation stories provide unique insight into a society’s masculine ideals. Moreover, the introduction notes that, despite scholars’ frequent exegetical application of the concept of rites of passage to biblical texts, no study before this one has applied this concept in a thorough way to the topic of coming of age, a topic to which rites of passage are uniquely well suited. After discussing the principles that guide the effort to locate the coming-of-age theme, the introductory chapter concludes by defining the book's goals. The primary goal is to identify the presence of the coming-of-age theme in the Hebrew Bible. The secondary goals are to consider how this theme is employed in the HB to highlight important messages and transitions in biblical historical narratives, and to demonstrate how these stories provide insight into representations of biblical masculinity.
David Blumenkrantz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190297336
- eISBN:
- 9780190297367
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190297336.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along ...
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This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along with relevant concepts from community psychology, especially the notion of a psychological sense of community. Cross-cultural ethnographies and case studies offer examples of traditional initiation rites. Elements central to a psychological sense of community and community-oriented rites of passage are explored. Social service paradigms that promote independent programs designed to “fix” people are challenged. This book sets forth guiding principles and clear methods for putting into practice a whole-systems approach to youth development through rites of passage that involves connecting and enhancing environments and building competencies, which promote the positive development of children and youth in their families, in their schools, among their peers, and in their community, and with a strong connection to the natural world. Rites of passage language weaves a common story that links techniques for clinical practice in prevention with identification, treatment, and maintenance. When members of all sectors of a community, for example, professionals, parents, youth, and so forth, join together in learning the language of initiation and rites of passage they can collectively use this common language and shared techniques to improve interventions and therapy with adolescents and their families and integrate many different approaches, such as developmental assets, character education, asset-based community development, the social development model of youth development, academic and social-emotional learning, resiliency, and all education and youth development approaches.Less
This book examines the relationship between adolescents’ passage to adulthood and community adaptation, resiliency, and survival. It reviews the literature on initiation and rites of passage along with relevant concepts from community psychology, especially the notion of a psychological sense of community. Cross-cultural ethnographies and case studies offer examples of traditional initiation rites. Elements central to a psychological sense of community and community-oriented rites of passage are explored. Social service paradigms that promote independent programs designed to “fix” people are challenged. This book sets forth guiding principles and clear methods for putting into practice a whole-systems approach to youth development through rites of passage that involves connecting and enhancing environments and building competencies, which promote the positive development of children and youth in their families, in their schools, among their peers, and in their community, and with a strong connection to the natural world. Rites of passage language weaves a common story that links techniques for clinical practice in prevention with identification, treatment, and maintenance. When members of all sectors of a community, for example, professionals, parents, youth, and so forth, join together in learning the language of initiation and rites of passage they can collectively use this common language and shared techniques to improve interventions and therapy with adolescents and their families and integrate many different approaches, such as developmental assets, character education, asset-based community development, the social development model of youth development, academic and social-emotional learning, resiliency, and all education and youth development approaches.
