Running head: RITE OF PASSAGE
Rite of Passage
Melena Gillihan
University of Phoenix
BSHS/342
Rite of Passage
The journey for every person begins with birth and ends with death. In between these two passages of life there will be other passages that affect us in many ways; birthdays, graduation, getting and losing jobs, marriage, childbirth, and divorce. The different rites of passages occur in every society and will reaffirm the values of that society. One of the more difficult stages that a person can go through is adolescence, the period between a person’s childhood and adulthood.
The teenagers of today it seems are different from how they used to be. In today’s world teenagers face quite a few things such as, violence, drugs, alcohol, and disrespect; each of these ills affects adolescents, also including anger, depression, low self esteem, and family problems. There needs to be more focus on the positive transition that a teen goes through to become an adult and how to create one instead of focusing on the negative.
Different rites of passages
Many societies believe that taking on the role of an adult starts in the puberty rite of passage stage. During this rite of passage, it will vary from girls to boys when it starts. Puberty is hard to determine for boys, in most societies circumcision is when it starts, however, for girls it usually occurs during their first menstruation. Teenagers, in some societies, leave their families to undergo a long period where they may endure intense physical trials. The Native Americans had a practice called vision quest; the adolescent would go into the wild alone until in a dream his or her personal guardian spirit is revealed. Whereas a bar mitzvah, for boys, and a bat mitzvah, for girls is the Jewish ceremony, after religious instructions the youth has now passed into adulthood.
Teenagers in America do not have a set rite of passage like that of African villages since the United States...