Anthropology - Rite of Passage PDF

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Professor Rousso-Schindler taught this course. ...

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Rite of Passage 1. Belgian anthropologists Arnold Van Gennep wrote The Rites of Passages in 1909 a. People and their cultures have prescribed ways to deal with important life changes such as birth, marriage, death, Etc… b. In many cases, we have ritual ceremonies that allow individuals and the people who are close with them to successful pass from one life stage to another. Occur in important like changes. 2. 3 Stages a. Separation i. Definition: a separation from an old state or identity. ii. Often accompanies separation, a symbolic behavior that signifies the detachment of the individual from their old identity. b. Liminality (or transition) i. Definition: the state of the new individual is ambiguous/unclear as she /her passes through a realm that has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state/identity. ii. Physical pain, ritual scarification, and occasionally ritually sexualized behavior c. Reincorporation (or aggregation) i. Definition: a person restabilizes in his/her new identity and with this new identity comes all the rights and obligations of that identity. ii. Example of rite of passage: Jewish ceremonial events for a boy who turns 13 who then becomes a man, marriage, 3. Kung Rite of Passage – boy to man a. The rite of passage begins when a boy shoots his first large animal (stage 1) b. He gets someone to help him track the animal usually his father c. Once the animal is tracked down they cook and eat the liver, the boy is not allowed to partake in this ritual meal d. The “marking ceremony” the marks is symbolic of the different aspects of hunting, becoming a man, and a better hunter (stage 2, b,c, and, d) e. Once the boy is able to kill both a male and female animal he will then be able to marry. 4. Girl to woman a. The rite of passage begins around the time when a girl menstruates for the first time. (stage 1) b. The girl sits in a special menstruation hut with her head covered (started stage 2) c. Older women dance a special dance, clap their hands, and sing around the menstrual hut d. Two older men join the dance (stage 3) 5. Details to know about the Liminal stage a. ‘Limens’: Latin term meaning threshold – this stage is a stepping stone between the past and the future b. Once on the ritual threshold, one gives up all the responsibilities of one’s old identity. c. As victor Turner writes, when people are in the liminal stage they are not necessarily bound to rules with of the old or new identity until they are fully summited into that identity. Gangs 1. As of 2011 (according to the FBI) a. There were over 33,000 gangs in the US. (EXAM) b. There were approximately 1.4 million gang members

c. 230,000 gang members were in jail 2. As of 2007 a. Latinos/Latinas accounted for 50% of all gang members, African-Americans 32%, whites 1%, and others 7%. b. 6.6% of gang members are female. 3. The most aggressive forms of criminal gang behavior come from gang members between ages 14 and 18 years old because they still need to prove themselves. 4. Specific characteristics of gangs a. “fictive kin” gang members consider each other to be family b. Living “the crazy life” c. “respect” 5. Gang initiation and the rite of passage a. “jumping in” b. Doing “work” c. Drive-by 6. How can someone get out of the gang if they want to a. Ageing out b. Blessing out (religion) c. Dying 7. One key theory about why people join gang a. Lack of social control b. There are social controls within every society that ensure people do not engage in too serious devious behavior 8. Social control theory – 4 factors in a person’s life that determined whether s/he will endeavor in normal or deviant behavior a. Attachment – the relationship one forms with significant others primarily within the family. b. Commitment – well defied life goals that begin in the family and are reinforced in the educational system. c. Involvement – participation in conventional activities that lead to socially acceptable forms of success. d. Belief – the acceptance of the moral validity of a central value system (religion, or law) e. So if there’s not enough of any – or all – of these 4 factors in a person’s life, it frees an individual from social control and encourages deviant behavior 9. 2 newer models of why people join gangs a. “subculture of violence” – the system that you live in i. If you put yourself in a culture of violence more likely you will turn to violence b. “routine activities” – who you hang out with i. The more time you tend to spend with people who are violent the more likely you will turn out to be violent....