In recent years, rites of passage have captured the attention of educators, counselors, parents, and concerned community members who are asking the question:  How can we support our friends, families, students, and community-members through life’s inevitable transitions in a healthy way? 

There is no one right way to support healthy transitions.  However, there are common challenges, hazards, and obstacles involved in doing this work, as well as certain approaches that have stood the test of time.  Over the past year, the Talk About Wellness Initiative has sponsored a project to compile research and resources on contemporary rites of passage.

Over the next year, Fran Weinbaum will be offering workshops and presentations that:

1. Examine current research and writing related to contemporary rites of passage

    

2. Identify current approaches to rites of passage in Vermont and nationwide

    

3. Apply the universal elements of any transition and rites of passage to participant’s schools

    

4. Explore and experience possible rites of passage activities

    

5. Examine the role of school faculty and staff, families, mentors and the broader community in rites of passag

Resource Lists - download Acrobat files

• Web References
• Videos
• School Based Curricula
• Books & Articles
• Regional & National Organizations

For more information, please contact:
Fran Weinbaum
Stillpoint Associates, LTD
128 Bliss Road
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
802-229-0940
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More About this Project

In contemporary western culture, the prevalence of community-supported rites of passage has diminished dramatically (Northcote 2006, Neill 2001), especially among adolescents making the transition to adulthood (Venable 1997).  In the absence of purposeful support for these transitions, we often witness the struggle of those who yearn to mark their own passage in a meaningful way.  This process can be alienating and even destructive.  As Rachel Kessler (2000) notes, “Without constructive rites of passage provided by adults, teenagers in our communities have created their own badges of adulthood – from the relatively benign driver’s licenses, proms and graduation ceremonies, to the more dangerous extremes of binge drinking, first baby, first jail sentence, or first murder.”  

Kessler is one of many researchers (Lertzman 2002, Grimes 2000, Grof 1996, Delaney 1995) who have posited a link between the decline of meaningful rites of passage and unhealthy, even dangerous behavior.  Others (Wallace 2006, Myerhoff 1982) suggest that this decline also contributes to the recent phenomena of prolonged adolescence (newly dubbed adultolescence).  As Stephen Venable (1997) suggests, “Indeed, just when our teens need adults the most, in the years of their developing sexuality and cognitive decision-making abilities, that is when our society most clearly leaves them to themselves, with cries of insanity and ‘I don’t understand you!’”

Overcoming the dangers associated with many pseudo rites of passage requires adult awareness and commitment.  While status-marking badges can be acquired by an individual, authentic rites of passage require a community that recognizes the challenges of key transitional times and can help convey communal meaning to those passages.

Cultural Perspective
Throughout time, in many cultures throughout the world, communities have come together to support, celebrate, and mark the passages each person makes through the cycle of life.  These passages include birth, childhood, puberty, marriage, adulthood, elderhood, and death.  Cultural anthropologist, Arnold van Gennep (1960), coined the term rite of passage to describe the rituals and ceremonies that accompany these significant life changes in many indigenous and pre-industrial societies. While varying widely, these rites serve a wide array of purposes and intentions that include:

1. Providing a structure for society to recognize and legitimize changes in an individual or group (Cushing 1998)

    

2. Supporting physical, emotional, and spiritual development (Grof 1996)

    

3. Helping frame, give meaning to, and learn from our experiences (Bell 2003)

    

4. Providing direction and vision for one’s life journey (Lertzman 2002)

    

5. Building community capacity and a sense of mutual dependency and belonging (Kessler 2000)

    

6. Renewing a healthy relationship with the land (Lertzman 2002)

    

7. Comforting, directing, and creating mechanisms for honoring and expressing grief during challenging times (such as the loss of a loved one) (Bell 2003)

While many indigenous societies continue to mark key transitions with traditional rites of passage, hundreds of organizations, individuals, communities, and schools across the world are now exploring, rediscovering, and reinventing ways to support individuals through key transitions.  These approaches vary widely in form, content, and structure.  Examples include meaningful familial ceremonies – men taking a nephew on a special weekend trip, or women gathering to honor a girl’s first menses.  Other programs offer year-long outdoor experiences modeled after the three-phase process (separation, liminality, and reincorporation) common to many traditional societies.