Life cycle ritual

A life cycle ritual is a ceremony to mark a change in a person's biological or social status at various phases throughout life. Such practices are found in many societies and are often based on traditions of a community. Life cycle rituals may also have religious significance that is stemmed from different ideals and beliefs.

A life cycle ritual can best be described as a ceremony undergone by an individual when he or she enters one phase of life to another. The term may be synonymous with rite of passage as described by Arnold van Gennep in his 1909 work The Rites of Passage, although it can be described as more specifically to do with major biological life events such as birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Van Gennep described society as being composed of "…several disparate social groupings". He further divided these social groupings into either secular (financial strata, for example) or sacred (being born, getting married), the latter being the category most closely associated with life cycle rituals.

Van Gennep classified rituals as broadly belonging to one of three categories: separation, liminal and incorporation. The separation phase involves the individual leaving one group or life phase at a point in time and the incorporation phase involves them joining the new phase. The liminal phase is the transitive phase in between the two where the individual has left one phase but not yet joined the next.

The various phases of the life cycle were described by anthropologist David Lancy as belonging to six practical categories:

Birth rites begin at the indication of pregnancy and through childbirth, continuing for a variable time forth until the required conditions per individual practices are satisfied. Adolescence is also marked by the term coming of age, which is the transition period between childhood and adulthood. In some societies, it is described by Suad Joseph as the change associated with the age of sexual maturity (p. 68), while in others, it is marked as the age where one adopts religious and social responsibility and standing. Initiation rights specifically involve those relating to the age during which sexual maturity is observed. However, this is very variable between societies and religions, and so the definition of maturation is derived mostly from social and cultural beliefs.

Norbeck and Alexander note that in primitive societies detached from the modern developing world, the rites of passage are limited by distinctions of sex and age. There is an absence of social status and developed religious beliefs. In culturally sophisticated societies, there are distinct divisions of labor, social statuses of the leadership and specialised occupations. Individuals are literate and learned, and possess the intellectual thinking to develop personal beliefs based on knowledge and understanding. This results in more organised practices of life cycle rituals, mostly in tune with critical biological and social events.

Life cycle ceremonies possess aspects of the symbolism that are representative of their origin. The practice of each rite and ritual has certain rules and conditions that must be adhered to. These can vary from clothing, venue, time of day, recitation of prayers and order of proceedings.

While no scheme of classification of passage rites has been universally accepted, there is a general trend with names being given to distinguishable types and some corresponding examples: