Essay One - Rites of Passage - body PDF

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Essay one for APL 110 - Rites of passage using the readings provided...

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Everyone, at some point in their lives, will go through a rite of passage or a ritual whether it be part of their culture or religion or even something simple like brushing their teeth in the morning. I have been through many different rituals but one that stood out as something life changing was my matric year and all the events I was a part of during that time. The simple task of starting the matric year was a change in itself. I experienced segregation and liminality in the first few days after grade 11 when I had to buy a new uniform – the new uniform separated us from the rest of the school as we were now wearing white. I was now separated from my grade 11 status – we no longer had to wear sunshine yellow dresses- but I was not yet in matric as the new year had not yet started, I was in the middle along with everyone else that had passed grade 11. Turner (1967, pg. 94-111) calls these phases liminality – ‘neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between’ (1967, pg.95) – and communitas – ‘community, or even communion of equal individuals who submit together to the general authority of the ritual elders’ (1967, pg. 96-97). As we entered matric we completed our first ritual in a sense as we were now a different social structure than what we were the previous year. We had different uniforms and more privileges yet we were all still the same, there was still communitas. My matric year was not just one ritual but actually smaller rituals joined together as a whole to allow me to become a different social structure by the end of it. The two main rituals I experienced were my matric dance and the day my matric results were released. My matric dance came first. It was a night that was exclusively for our grade and the teachers – who could be our version of the cultural elders or leaders that hold authority over us – a night that we used to our full advantage to look back at our school years and see how much we had all matured and become wiser, it was this night that we were essentially separated from our previous social structure as a school student and thrust into the world between as we no longer had to attend any classes or school in general – besides to write our final exams - yet we were not yet graduates – not until we had received our marks at least.

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The colours that I wore in a way represented where I was at that stage – the red represented the excitement of starting a new stage in my life, the white represented my youth and the pink represented my acceptance that things were indeed changing and it would be difficult to get used to but I would be able to. The night itself was a representation of a ritual as we engaged in different activities such as listening to speeches made by the heads of our school and allowing the RCL (Representative Council of Leaders) heads to start the first dance before we were all allowed to join. During the remainder of the night we were all in our liminal phase and the dance itself represented communitas as no one was better than the other, we were all equal, sharing in the joys of dancing and taking photos with anyone who was willing so we could always remember our fellow class mates as we might not see them again after that night. By the end of the night we entered the another stage of what could be seen as the final stage known as integration or just another level of the liminal phase. We all left to go to our own after parties and events that we had planned, leaving behind our school life and entering the world as a new social structure, yet we were not graduates we were indeed still in between the two. After our final exams had been completed and we had, had a bit of down time the day that our results would be released arrived. Whereas my matric dance was only a ritual for those at my school, the day we received our results involved every matric in the country. We had already been segregated by writing our final exams but now the time came where we were in our liminal phase and showed communitas. Everyone spent the day conversing with friends about what to expect or making plans to go find a newspaper at midnight. We all had our own rituals in how to deal with the stress we were dealing with. Our waiting could be compared to a liminal phase, it ‘exemplifies the transition of an individual from one state to another.’ (Delflem 1991). We were about to change from one social structure to another by hopefully becoming graduates. In a sense I would compare our waiting for matric results to that of Zulu girls waiting for their virginity tests (Scorgie, 2002). In both scenarios we are waiting for results that could impact our lives drastically – for the Zulu girls it could be embarrassing if they are found to not be virgins and have to exit with no white on their faces – white represents purity and honesty- much like for us it would be embarrassing to have to repeat matric. 2

The wait that I had to endure was unbearable. Nothing could take my mind off of my marks. I was constantly questioning myself, wondering if I had actually done my best and if I could have done better. ‘Waiting in liminal or transitional space is waiting for things to come; it is an interstructual period. It is a waiting that is endured because it is fueled by a mixture of despair and hope: despair because of the knowledge that the waiting might culminate in an end like the execution in Kafka’s The Trial (1925) or Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading (1989); hope because it is grounded in a longing for and expectation of a new status or identity at the end of the waiting period. It is like coming-of-age…’ (Turner 1969) (Sutton, Vigneswaran, Wels, 2011). The time came and the results were released online and eventually – after putting my examination number in wrong multiple times and having a few freak-out sessions because they couldn’t find my results – I put my correct number in and pressed enter. Looking at the screen I almost had a meltdown. I had passed with University entrance and I could not be more excited. All the waiting around and stressing was worth it and I had finally integrated into a new social status of unemployed – as I had not yet received my official acceptance from the university but I was hopeful. During my matric year I went through multiple rituals and rites of passages that have all paved the way and helped me grow into who I am now. There is no doubt that there will be more to come but if you look at it everything can be made into a ritual it just depends on how you would view it yourself. Victor Turner gives the best explanation about how and what people feel and experience during the rites that they endure and although there is always an exception to the rule you will always in some way experience segregation, liminality, integration and communitas whether by choice or by fate. “Every positive change–every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness–involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.” -Dan Millman

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Bibliography Scorgie, F (2002) Virginity Testing and the Politics of Sexual Responsibility: Implications for AIDS Intervention pg. 56 Sutton, R, Vigneswaran, D, Wels, H. (2011) Waiting in liminal space: Migrants’ queuing for Home Affairs in South Africa pg. 30 Turner, V. (1969) Introduction to Social Anthropology pg. 94-106

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