Elizabeth Dean: Gennep's Rites of Transition

Gennep's Rites of Transition
In Turner's "Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture," Arnold Van Gennep's ideas are discussed. Gennep shows us that all rites de passage, or rites of tansition are marked by three phases. These phases include separation, limen or margin, and aggregation. The first phase deals with a detachment of a person or group from an earlier fixed point int he social structure. During the limen phase, the same person or group passes through a realm or dimension that has almost no charactersitcs of his/her past. The third phase, the passage is consumated, and the subject return to mundance social life. I can relate these three passages to my life in the sense of times when I am stressed and how I handle them. Sometimes when I am feeling overwhelmed, or overworked, when at school I will go down to a spot near riverside park where I like to go and just experience silence, and peace. Although not a religious pilgrimage by any respect it reminds me of these rite of passage. I seperate myself from everything going on in my life, to a place and state that resembles nothing of my previous state. I am by myself in nature and alone with my thoughts which I dont get alot of very often. After I have some time to myself, and I bring myself back down a level, I feel rejuvinated and I return to my first state.