Introduction
The culmination of adolescence is the successful transition from childhood to adulthood, emotionally, biologically, and socially. In numerous societies, specific ceremonies and rituals known as adolescent rites of passage mark this transition. These rituals serve to remove the adolescent from their normal sphere in society, ingrain important cultural knowledge about adult roles and expectations, and then welcome them back with new status, identity, and responsibilities. The main utility of these rites is to prepare the adolescent for social maturity (Weisfeld, 1997).
Van Gennep (1960) analyzed many ethnographies of ritual in different societies, finally describing an underlying structure in the phenomena of rites of passage. This similarity in underlying structure echoes Joseph Campbell’s description of mythological structure (Flowers, 1991), and Carl Jung’s collective unconscious (Jung, 1968a, 1968b), both of which make very convincing arguments for a biological template of meaning making from ritual. It will be argued that rites of passage in puberty and adolescence are the cultural equivalent of the biological changes that humans undergo, including sexual maturation, and the start of menarche. Weisfeld (1997) supports this view when he states,
“Preparation of the adolescent for maturity presumably involves a number of tasks. She or he must be prepared not only for establishing and heading a family but also for participation in the adult community at large. Perhaps some of the universal tasks in attaining adulthood—mastering adult subsistence roles, finding and keeping a mate, caring for children, developing an allegiance to the community, and so forth—are facilitated by puberty rites” (p. 28).
Traditional cultures are widely known to utilize rites of passage for transitioning girls and boys into adulthood. According to Weisfeld (1997), when Schlegel and Barry (1980a) limited their definition to initiation ceremony alone, they found rites in one or both sexes in 52% of the original 182 worldwide traditional cultures studied by Murdock and White (1969). This overwhelming percentage cannot be dismissed as species insignificant, and lends strong corroboration for significant adaptive value in the development of rites of passage across the human species.
Adolescent rites of passage in industrialized countries has become increasingly inconsequential, possibly due to the overwhelming emphasis on individuality over communal cooperation in mainstream social life, exposure to many different belief systems, or the lack of a formalized ritual “overseer”. This slow decline of formalized rites of passage into adulthood has not diminished altogether, however, and increasingly, adolescents and young adults are left with semblances of rites of passage, including high school or college graduation, and obtaining a driver’s license, or blessings (Bjornsen, 2000; Fasick, 1988). In absence of any formalized ritual, many other adolescents may attempt to create their own ceremonies to announce their arrival in the adult social arena. These include bouts of intoxication, body modification, and gang initiation, to name a few (Sande, 2002; Vigil, 1996; Wall, n.d.).
The goal of this paper is threefold. First, to describe the phenomena and structure of rites of passage as they apply to adolescence. Secondly, to discuss how adolescent rites of passage may be part of a biologically based schema designed to make meaning from symbolic experience; and that this meaning-making schema is a cultural-evolutionary adaptation that helped early humans to survive in their environments by utilizing culture and the social nature of humans to accelerate sexually mature individuals into mainstream reproductive culture. Finally, to analyze the effects of the absence of formal adolescent rites of passage in industrialized countries on the development of adolescents into successful members of the adult community.
Operational Definitions
Before discussing the structure of rites of passage in general and specifically adolescent rites of passage, several definitions are required for clarification. Adolescence hereafter refers to the transitional period marked by the onset of puberty and ends with the individual being behaviorally and emotionally self-regulating, financially independent of the family, and the taking on of culturally accepted adult roles (Jaffe, 1998). While researchers generally agree that adolescence begins with puberty, marking its end is more difficult, made especially so in industrialized societies that often foster the prolongation of adolescent behaviors, such as education, for adult roles.
Under this definition of adolescence it may seem that some individuals will not completely pass through adolescence into adulthood. For instance, many adults are unable to control their emotions in socially acceptable ways and display anger or violence in unacceptable situations. Also, becoming financially independent may not be a reliable marker for all individuals in American society, the richest nation in the world, whose elite parents’ fortune often continues to support their children in perpetuity. In addition, “culturally accepted adult roles” implies that there is a shared acceptance of adult roles, which may not accurately reflect the real society. For instance, homosexual marriages are generally looked down upon in most states, let alone the roles that each member brings to the marriage, but this does not mean that homosexual marriage roles need to follow the national expectation of normal, or that those who are in such marriages are species abnormal. For the purposes of this paper, the definition of adolescence will refer to the species normal development of an individual in the larger culture, but not as a function of cultural belief survey statistics. In addition, because the onset of puberty is a reliable marker for the beginning of adolescence, the term puberty rites and adolescent rites of passage are synonymous in this work.
Furthermore, successful transition from adolescence to adulthood has been characterized by a psychological separation and individuation during early and late adolescence (Hoffman, 1984). Several studies (Fulmer, Medalie, & Lord, 1982 in Hoffman, 1984) have discussed the emphasis psychoanalytic and attachment theories place on the role of separation in successful species normal development. Adolescents who are not able to psychologically separate from their parents and form individual identity may well fail to learn and participate in adult roles in society.
Psychological Separation
The development of emotional independency begins in the first few years of life, when the infant engages in the first social relationship of the species, that of the caregiver. During the first years, an intense emotional relationship is built between the child and primary care giver(s), usually the mother. The infant goes through a series of developmental stages beginning with breaking away from the mother-infant dyad, leading to reconciliation, ending with an internalization of the mother image (Hoffman, 1984). The infant will gradually learn to become more emotionally independent as it learns to act more independently. The transition to emotional independency will be smooth and gradual if the relationship of the mother-infant is loving, positive, and consistent and emphasizes encouragement (Hoffman, 1984). However, when the mother-infant relationship is not healthy; characterized by anxiety, hostility, rejection, or ambivalence, the psychological separation cannot be smooth and gradual because the internalization of the mother image is malformed or incomplete (Hoffman, 1984). In other words, when children’s needs are not met in the early years of life, they tend to be left with unresolved desires or attitudes about how the world will treat them. Consequently, when they are required to demonstrate adult behaviors, they are emotionally inadequate.
Hoffman (1984) believes that this separation-individuation phase of the first three years of life consists of several aspects, including behavioral independence or functional independence, representational-cognitive differentiation or attitudinal independence, and emotional independence, that can later be manifested in conflictual emotions, conflictual independence, in adolescence and adulthood. These four factors are useful for understanding the separation of adolescents from their parents and the self-creation of socially acceptable adult identities. Thus, successful transition to adulthood requires the adolescent to be functionally, emotionally, conflictually, and attitudinally mature. As will be discussed later, these developmental needs of adolescents may be enriched, emphasized, and reinforced by cultural processes that have developed in evolutionary history. Traditionally, rites of passage rituals may have helped to ensure the proper development of adolescents in these domains before acceptance into the larger adult culture.
Adolescent Rites of Passage: Structure and Function
Rites of passage, in one form or another, are universal among adolescents (Delaney, 1995). Arnold Van Gennep (1909/1960) originally coined the term rites of passage to refer to a cross-cultural phenomenon of rituals of transition including those that mark the passage of individual members of a society through the life course—birth, initiation, engagement, marriage, healing and death (Hockey, 2002). Van Gennep analyzed numerous ethnographies and discovered an underlying form or schema. Hockey (2002) discusses how Van Gennep identified the ways in which individuals move between social locations which are often delineated by age, i.e. boyhood/manhood, single/married. When the cultural details were sifted out what was left was a tripartite structure that describes (1) separation from normal society, (2) an ambiguous time betwixt and between fixed positions, and (3) re-introduction into the society with a new social position (Hockey, 2002).
The divisions of rites of passage in general can be further explained in the context of adolescent rites of passage. Delaney (1995) further divided the tripartite model into four sections; separation, preparation and instruction by an elder/mentor, transition (child-adult) accompanied by a ceremony, and a welcoming back into society with a changed status. The only real difference between Delaney (1995) and Van Gennep (1909/1960) is that Delaney splits the betwixt and between time into two parts, i.e. preparation and transition. The following examples will help to elucidate how different cultural puberty rites support the tripartite model.
The Okiek are an indigenous people of Kenya
A common adolescent rite of passage in the Amerindians was that of the vision quest. Usually males, 14-15 years old, were removed from the group, taken to a sweat lodge where their bodies were purified, advised and assisted by a medicine man, after which the boys were taken to an isolated spot to fast for 4-5 days and await a vision directing them to their path in life as a man. After the vision, the new members of society are welcomed back and expected to take on adult responsibilities including marriage and children (Delaney, 1995).
Festa das Mocas Novas is the initiation rite for women of the Tukuna people of the Northwest Amazon. At the onset of menstruation, the women are isolated, for 4-12 weeks, in a small chamber in their family’s homes. The girls are believed to be dwelling in the underworld in constant danger from Demons. After seclusion, a ritual ensues where relatives wear masks, incarnating the demons of the underworld and a shaman gives the girl a fire brand (sacred knowledge) to destroy the power of the demons. After this the girl is welcomed to womanhood (Delaney, 1995).
It is not necessary for each culture’s rite of passage to consist of all three parts (separation, instruction, return). Weisfeld (1997) noted that all three were only found in 17 of the 37 societies studied by Precourt (1975). The fact that puberty rites are so wide spread in human societies belies a societal advantage for the successful transition of adolescents into participating adults in a given society. Perhaps closer analysis of the function of each phase can help to explain how the domains discussed by Hoffman (1984) are affected by formal rites of passage.
As has already been discussed, separation from parents is critical to the development of an adolescent’s independence. The first phase, separation, has two components, physical and psychological. Physical separation serves as a concrete marker of transition. It has been theorized that caves were sometimes used for pubertal rites in prehistory (Weisfeld, 1997). Adolescents are removed from their parents’ presence, and opposite sex peers, where they cannot maintain their identities as dependent. The physical separation emphasizes the need for adolescents to abandon their childish ways. In modern society, summer camp and boarding school can be seen as institutions aimed at weaning children from their parents (Weisfeld, 1997).
In addition to being separated from parents, boys and girls are secluded from each other. The purpose of the second phase is for instruction of sex roles and information. Adolescents, therefore, must be guided by same sex mentors, which serve to teach a woman how to be a woman, and a man to be a man. It has also been suggested that sex segregation of puberty rites parallels the increasing sex differentiation resulting from puberty (Weisfeld, 1997). This has been witnessed around the world in both girls and boys who show a drastic preference for same sex peers around 9 or 10 years old (Weisfeld, 1997). This may be due to a natural tendency to compile sexual knowledge into a group where it can be easily shared with all members.
Psychological separation announces to the individual that a new behavior is required. For those adolescents who have not had successful experiences during attachment and are therefore still emotionally dependent, this marker is exemplified by the physical separation from the attachment figure (Gibson, 2003b). Psychologically, the individual must develop, if they have previously not, the appropriate psychological mechanisms to navigate the learning and responsibilities expected of their new status.
The second phase has been referred to as transition (Weisfeld, 1997), betwixt and between fixed positions (Hockey, 2002; Van Gennep, 1960), the liminal phase (Sande, 2002), and preparation/instruction (Delaney, 1995). The common theme is a phase of learning and transformation. As Delaney (1995) notes,
“the transition itself most often takes place within the format of some ceremony…including (1) literal and spiritual cleansing, (2) physical transformation, (3) offerings, prayers, and blessings, (4) traditional food and dress, and (5) traditional musical instruments and song” (p.891).
Before the ceremony of transition takes place though, the adolescent is instructed on mythology, social issues, cultural values and practices, personal conduct, courtship practices, and duties to one’s spouse and society (Weisfeld, 1997). This reeducation serves to emphasize the important knowledge and responsibilities gained with adult status. It also reinforces the appropriate attitudes and behaviors expected in the society.
Cognitively, adolescents are developmentally ready to receive this mass of cultural knowledge rapidly and uncritically. Incidental learning peaks about 11-years old (Weisfeld, 1997) and two bilateral growth spurts in the cerebral cortex appear about 12 and 16-years old (Jaffe, 1998). This growth in cognitive abilities coincides with sexual role and cultural learning provided by adolescent rites of passage. Most adolescents are in Piaget’s Formal operational stage. Adolescents in this stage are capable of thinking logically about abstract events and can reason about the world symbolically (Jaffe, 1998). For the first time they can reason like adults and rites of passage are full of symbolic experience and information that can only be passed on when the adolescent has “come of age”.
After the initiates have undergone their separation, been instructed by a mentor on their new roles as adults, they are welcomed back into their communities with new status. The purpose of the incorporation is to announce to other members of the adult group that the new members have achieved adult maturity sexually and socially. Incorporation is often marked by a formalized ceremony. Schlegel and Barry’s (1980a, as cited in Weisfeld, 1997) study found that 36% of all cultures celebrated boys transition with a formal ceremony, and 46% for girls. When a formal ceremony does not take place, instruction is still terminated when a certain measurable level of maturity has occurred (Weisfeld, 1997).
During the incorporation a test may be given to the adolescent in order to prove they have reached adult status. These ordeals (Weisfeld, 1997), are generally tests of some adult skill. In some cultures, boys may be required to kill an animal, endure pain, or endure cold, hunger, and fear. Ordeals may also serve to subdue disobedient youths; youths who may only belong to the elite membership of adulthood by showing respect to the ways of their elders.
Rites of passage are constructed rituals whose purpose is to expedite the successful transition of adolescents into adults within a given cultural framework and environment. The universality of puberty rites across the human spectrum suggests that they may be the result of cultural evolution analogous to the biological changes that occur during puberty. Weisfeld (1997) summed it up best when he wrote:
“puberty rites practices may interact adaptively with our ancestral primate behavioral and anatomical changes of puberty. They may form an adaptive complex that can be understood by considering all three domains. If a particular pubertal change in body or behavior evolved to accomplish some function, then it is likely that some cultural practice, such as an aspect of puberty rites, also developed to abet this function” (p.29).
For the human species, biological changes are mediated through culture practice. If biology and cultural practices were not synergistic, then they would place their owners at a serious disadvantage for survival (Weisfeld, 1997).
Cultural practices can check and improve on the development of its members by providing subsequent learning opportunities for functional, attitudinal, emotional, and conflictual independence. Transition to adulthood is so important, as it relates to reproduction of species, that humans have universally developed a structure of ritual that ensures that those adults in society will have the greatest reproductive success because they have been indoctrinated into the cultural-sexual knowledge of the local group.
Rites of Passage as Cultural Evolutionary Adaptations
Before discussion of adolescent rites of passage as evolutionary solutions to adaptive problems, it is necessary to briefly comment on culture as both a biological and behavioral adaptation in the Darwinian sense. In evolution, increasingly complex structures can only be the result of natural selection (Darwin, 1859/1998). Arguably, culture is the most complex of social structures endemic to human nature, and its adaptive nature can only be a result of evolutionary forces. Behavior, as an outward manifestation of biology, is not subject to natural selection. However, it does directly influence what type of genetic material is selected by changing the dynamics between the environment and the organism. In other words, “genetically based variations in physical or psychological features of an individual interact with the environment, and, over many generations, these features tend to change in frequency, resulting, eventually, in species-wide traits in the population as a whole” (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2000). Adaptations that are useful from a reproductive balcony tend to increase, while those that are negative tend to become obsolete because the carriers of such genotypes are less successful breeders.
In the field of evolutionary psychology, culture is both a guide of human behavior and collection of developmental information for species normal development (Scarr, 1993). As such, it is widely accepted to be a significant evolutionary adaptation ( see Barash, 2001; Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, 1992; Buss, 2001; Fracchia & Lewontin, 1999; Laland, Odling-Smee, & Feldman, 2001; Okasha, 2003; Scarr, 1993). Human culture and extant social behavior is highly variable because it is produced by an incredibly intricate, dependent set of functional programs that utilize and process data from the world, including intentional and unintentional information provided by other humans (Barkow et al., 1992).
According to developmental systems theory (DST), the development of individuals is controlled by a bidirectional relationship between all level of biology and experiential factors (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2000). This means that genetic activity (i.e. genes that code for protein molecules) determine the growth of structures (i.e. muscles or nerves), which in turn influences the activity and function of behavior in a specific environment. Human behavior creates the environment in which humans live and thus alternately affects activity, necessary structures and on down the line. Therefore, cultural activity can affect the biology of an individual by creating an environment that selects for certain traits over others.
Culture is the super-organizer of mental modules (Gibson, 2003a). It has developed to support cultural knowledge transmission and facilitate the processing of cognitive needs in human social interactions. As complex as culture is, there are certain patterns and themes that programs tend to adhere to for efficiency and flexibility. For example, all human stories, regardless or culture, language, or time, have the same basic structure once stripped of their cultural costume (Campbell, 1949/1973). The tripartite nature of mythology mimics that of ritual. First there is the departure, the hero(ine) must leave their normal world regardless of their personal desires and travel across a threshold into another realm. After the character has left their known world, they step into the initiation phase where they are instructed, tested, and tempted. After they have successfully overcome their ordeals they return to their old world, bringing some micro or macroscopic change into society (Campbell, 1949/1973). Often times this change is little other than personal growth, but it serves to protect the society and ensure the cycle of life. Campbell
Humans take environmental experiences and utilize their psychology to imbue them with significance, they share these constructions with each other and understand them because they have evolved with the same cognitive architecture in similar ancestral environments, namely that of hunter and gatherers. The development of ritual institutions, specifically that of adolescent rites of passage, advantages the reproductive success of the species by turning out adults who are capable of carrying on the necessary roles of sexually mature members. By subjecting adolescents to a departure, initiation, and return phase in a ritual, humans are using their cognitive architecture to improve upon the maturing process and in effect wean costly (measured in allocated resources) adolescents into providing members of the social group.
Conclusions: Rituals in Modern Society
The fact that myths and rituals exist in all human cultures and the underlying structure is the same makes it extremely likely that a mental module exists in the human brain that governs certain types of symbolic meaning making from experience. For nearly 2 million years, the ancestors of modern humans have been challenged with survival in different regions of the world. The use of speech and tools is clearly evident as early as homo erectus circa 1.8 million to 300,000 years ago (Trigger, 1989), so it is entirely likely that cultural mechanisms were also in effect at this time. Because natural selection works on the reproductive fitness of individuals, it is logical that the social cooperation of human tribes would tend to evolve mechanisms prudent for improved sexual reproduction. Adolescence is clearly marked by biological changes, puberty. Adolescent rites of passage probably developed out of the need to (1) identify those entering sexual maturity—separation, (2) instruct newly developed adolescents in the ways of sexual reproductive customs and child rearing practices—initiation, and (3) announce their arrival of sexual readiness into the larger group—return. If this tripartite structure was not effective in increasing reproductive success and adult behaviors in a society, it would have been replaced by a more profitable mental module via natural selection.
The absence of formalized rites of passage for adolescents in many industrialized countries is of great concern. Adolescents desire to be recognized as adults, autonomous members of society, and obtain the rights and privileges due them. Lacking any formalized ritual to help them transition, many adolescents struggle to “create their own rituals which at best are partially successful, but often disastrous” (Delaney, 1995). For example, Chicano barrio street gangs in urban California have created their own initiation rites which often involve brutal beatings, stabbing, and crime (Vigil, 1996). In addition, street gangs recruit the majority of their members during the middle school years, when youngsters are naturally susceptible to the influence of older role models, and same sex peers.
One explanation for the disappearance of formalized adolescent rites of passage may be because contemporary American society is based primarily on monetary and vocational gains, and traditional rites of passage no longer play a substantial role in the determination of social status (Wall, n.d.). High school graduation, obtaining a driver’s license, or turning 18 all mark some pseudo-transition period and do impart some measure of adult responsibility, but they do not collectively determine the arrival of maturity or readiness for adult social responsibilities, and specifically, they neglect the sexual reproductive aspects of adult life.
Adolescent rites of passage developed in evolutionary history because it was advantageous for there to be more sexually mature individuals in a group. Whether rites of passage to mark adulthood will continue to be a necessary component of human culture depends upon their contemporary effectiveness to increase reproductive or psychological fitness.
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