Image and Pilgrimage: Ritual rite of passage

Tyler Hoskinson

Turner describe rite of passage as an important category of ritual; "the transitional rituals accompanying changes of place, state, social position, and age in culture." He also says there are three phases: separation, margin (or limen), and reaggregation. An example of a rite of passage ritual would be the native tribe that we discussed in class. The boys/future men are separated from the rest of the tribe, then they are pierced with hooks in their chests and must yank themselves free through a sort of tribal dance it seems. The process of yanking themselves free places them in a liminal state (the second phase) or the margin. Once they yank themselves free they reaggregate or rejoin the rest of the tribe as men, and the scars they bare represent there tribulations. I think that this would be an extremely rewarding experience though I'm not sure if I would have the courage to go through with it. One might have to be fully invested in the ideas and workings of that particular tribe in order to realize the substantial gains that the rite of passage bares.