The Encyclopedia of World Religions

390 S rites of passage

People sometimes look upon these transitions with anxiety. Therefore, rites of passage are some times called “life-crisis rituals.” Rites of passage routinely occur at birth, puberty, marriage, and death. Almost every religion has rites of passage for these occasions, although there may be some exceptions. For example, Protestants who use BAP TISM as a puberty rite may not observe religious rit uals in conjunction with birth. In North America, however, the broader society provides rituals for marking the occasion. These include baby show ers, sending out birth announcements, in earlier days passing out cigars, and perhaps a welcome home party. Rites of passage mark biological changes and developments: birth, physical maturity, and death. But they do not take place only on the day of one’s birth or death. That is because the stages and tran sitions marked by rites of passage are just as much social and cultural. Indeed, in the minds of the par ticipants, social and cultural changes may be the most prominent. For example, Protestants who bap tize at an age of accountability might be shocked to hear baptism described as a “puberty rite.” For them physical maturation has little or nothing to do with the ritual. The biological terms remain, how ever, the most convenient ones to use. There are many important birth rituals. Some Christians baptize infants and anoint them with oil. Jews circumcise boys on the eighth day after birth as a sign of their covenant with God ( see CIR CUMCISION ). Muslims circumcise, too. Traditional high-caste Hindus have an elaborate series of ritu als focused on male children. It extends from the conception of the child to the child’s first haircut at the age of three. Many societies require mothers and newborn children to observe a period of seclu sion immediately after birth. Puberty rituals are often called INITIATIONS . As already noted, some Christians practice baptism as a puberty ritual; others practice confirmation. In J UDAISM the standard puberty ritual is bar mitz vah for boys and, in more liberal congregations, bat mitzvah for girls ( see BAR / BAT MITZVAH ). In some Buddhist countries boys take the initial vows of a monk for a short time. It is part of their growing

possibilities of communication created by televi sion ( see TELEVANGELISM ). Because of their emphasis on moral rededi cation, revivals have fostered a kind of Christian activism. The camp meetings of the Second Great Awakening sowed the seeds of the temperance (no-alcohol) and women’s suffrage (right to vote) movements. They also fostered abolitionism. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, the moral activism of revivals had become largely associated with a conservative emphasis on tradi tion. Moody and other revivalists at the time were instrumental in the rise of Christian FUNDAMENTAL ISM ( see FUNDAMENTALISM , C HRISTIAN ). Billy Graham’s crusades promoted a moderate conservatism, but the revivalism of the 1980s and beyond, in the era of Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and others, became militantly antiliberal. Revivalism remains a factor on the religious scene of the United States. Many local Protestant churches hold periodic revivals as a means of regenerating enthusiasm in their members. Those who cannot or choose not to attend revivals now have ready access to them on religiously oriented television stations. In the late 1990s a revival move ment known as the Promise Keepers addressed what it saw as the deteriorating situation of the American family by appealing specifically to men. At its large, men-only meetings held in sports sta diums, participants dedicated themselves not only to being better husbands and fathers but also to reclaiming their biblical roles as head and final authority in the family. rites of passage R ITUALS that take place at important junctures in a person’s life. A Belgian anthropologist named Arnold van Gennep identi fied rites of passage for the first time in 1909. They are one of the most important kinds of rituals. They define the different stages through which human life proceeds, such as childhood, adulthood, and parenthood. They also transfer a person from one stage to another. For example, the rite of marriage transforms two single people into a married couple ( see MARRIAGE AND RELIGION ).