What comes to mind when you read “rite of passage”?
An auditorium full of excited undergraduates throwing their square hats into the air? A sword being tapped on either shoulder of a kneeling knight? Someone having their head shaved on their first day of boot camp? A bar or bat mitzvah? Maybe a retirement party with questions about cruises and golf trips in the air?
Whatever comes to mind, I invite you to consider if you have been through that moment, and if so, how you were shaped by that passage. If it’s a hypothetical example, consider what the person undergoing the rite of passage was leaving behind and what they were stepping into.
As an early career sociologist, my research at Dalhousie focuses on the medical professionals who guide us through big transitions in life—specifically, birth and becoming a parent and death and dying. These are two very tangible instances of a “rite of passage.” I am interested in how the spiritual (or beyond-medical) aspects of these transitions are treated by professionals in medical settings.
The phrase “rite of passage” (original French: rite de passage in rites de passage, rites d’initiation) is attributed to French-Dutch-German anthropologist Anthony van Gennep in 1909 and has since been taken up in countless ways by a wide array of academic fields. The three stages of the rite of passage proposed by van Gennep are still helpful today for exploring the importance of recognizing life transitions. For example, pregnancy and birth can be understood as having a large impact on someone’s identity through this framework:
- Separation: this establishes the person* undergoing the passage as separate from the group they once were associated with. A pregnancy marks someone as separate from who they were previously, as a future parent, no longer a child (someone who has gone through menarche or their first period) and someone who will become forever linked to another being through having been pregnant with them.
- Liminality: “liminality” is a time of between-states or when one is not one thing or the other but on the threshold of becoming something else. Pregnancy can be a liminal state in many ways, where the pregnant person is not yet a parent and is no longer a single entity. Labour could also be considered a liminal state, where it is more apparent that the labouring person is undergoing massive change. The realities of how pregnancy has shaped and controlled their body may become more apparent then and parenthood is on the horizon in a much more tangible way.
- Incorporation: the person is incorporated into the new group and takes on their new role. They may be “presented” to the former group as a changed person. After a baby is born, the birthing person emerges as a parent. Midwives often talk about the process of labour as being not only about welcoming a new human into the world, but as the arrival of a new parent. Sometimes grief is amongst the emotions post-birth, where the new parent may grieve the loss of their former self or the loss of their dual relationship with their partner that has now become a triad. This is a healthy and normal experience that indicates the new parent is processing their new role deeply and honestly. Leaving the hospital or the house for the first time after birth often solidifies the person as a parent in the eyes of society and in their own mind.
As you can tell, modern society is full of moments of change and reemergence. Each stage requires that the individual be witnessed by their society. While the individual may experience change in themselves, it is the recognition of that change by others that confirms it has happened. This is how a sociological view of modern rites of passage reveals the deep connection between each person and their cultural, social and spiritual context.
We exist through others.
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Over the next year, I’ll be exploring how medical professionals help us through major life transitions and the role that ritual has played — and can play — in enshrining those moments as sacred and important. I’ll discuss what birth and death care look like in the Nova Scotian health care context and share conversations I have with experts in those fields. I am also interested in tracking how norms and practices around birth and death care shift as professionals aim to accommodate those interested in de-medicalizing these life transitions.
You can follow my blog posts through the OpenThink platform, and on my Substack or Instagram.
*I used gender neutral language to describe people who are pregnant or becoming new parents to reflect the fact that not everyone who can become pregnant or give birth identifies as a woman or a mother. There are specific forms of oppression faced by cisgender women, and these are often highlighted during pregnancy or parenthood. Genderqueer or trans people and cisgender women have a shared struggle against patriarchal oppression. Check out Trans Fertility Co for resources on trans parenthood.
