REVIEW OF "RITES OF PASSAGE" BY ARNOLD VAN GENNEP
INTRODUCTION There are facts in life which sometimes we do not reflect upon. One of such is this fact of passage from one sphere, level, or stage in life to another and the rituals or rites that mark these transitions. It is in this light that Arnold Van Gennep tries to illumine our minds towards this reality. Thus, he began his work on “Rites of Passage” by underscoring different levels of civilizations in social groupings which are distinctly distinguished by profane or sacred. For Gennep, for a man to pass from one of these groupings to another; special conditions are to be fulfilled. This condition is applicable to all spheres of life be it priesthood or others. Thus, Gennep underlines incompatibility between profane and the sacred world, which a man cannot pass from one to the other without through an intermediary stage. Thus, social groups in such societies have magico-religious foundations, thus certain rites must be fulfilled. On this note, the life of an individual in any ...