The Circle of Life:

Four Universal Rites of Passage that Unite the Human Family

By Alan D. DeSantis

The Circle of Life

1) On the surface, our world and its people seem very different (if not outright strange)
Different foods, languages, Gods, clothes, etc.

2) Below the surface, however, societies share many commonalities that, at first glance, are not apparent
Philosophers call these Cultural Structures

3) One of the most fascinating commonality is the Four Universal Rites of Passage that Unite the Human Family

Four Universal Rites of Passage

Every culture celebrates . . .
1) Birth
We enter life

2) Coming of age
We enter into adulthood

3) Marriage
We enter life with a partner

4) Death
We enter the afterlife with the belief that we will be re-born

In essence, every culture believes that we all symbolically die and are spiritually re-born many times

Birth

Birth and Childhood

Ever society has a ritual to welcome children into the world and integrate them into the community When a child is born, they have only a physical existence; they are not yet recognized by their family nor accepted by the community. It is only by virtue of those rites performed immediately after birth that they are incorporated into the community of the living.
-Mircea Eliade (The Sacred and the Profane)

Burgos, Northern Spain

Ekundu-Kundu in Cameroon

Palau, Micronesia

Yemen

Northern Australian Aboriginals

St. Theresas Catholic Church in DC

 Every church still has its baptismal font in which initiates are bathed or symbolically drowned. After a figurative death in the baptismal bath, they come out transformed as reborn ones.
C. G. Jung (Symbolic Life)

Coming of Age
(Passage into Adulthood)

Coming of Age
To become fulfilled members of their society, adolescents must understand when 1) childhood ends, 2) adulthood begins, and 3) what their culture expects of them Girls: In parts of Africa, South America, and various Native American communities, when girls begin menstruating, they are secluded and taught the art of womanhood by the older females in their community

Coming of Age
Boys: typically face an ordeal or trial where they earn and affirm their passage to manhood.
This can range from first hunts & ritual warfare

What ever the case, both sexes understand that the ordeal will officially mark their entrance into adulthood
They never think of themselves as children again

Congolese Kota Boys

Apache Girl

The song chanted by all members of the Apache Tribe

Now you are entering the world. You become an adult with responsibilities . . . Walk with honor and dignity . . . For you will become the mother of a nation.

Lesse girl, Zaire, Africa

Seclusion and Womanhood

From the Zulus of South Africa to the Cuna of South America, seclusion is an almost universal response to the onset of menstruation in non-industrial societies. The menstruation hut is seen as a safe place where a girl may complete her physical transformation to womanhood while learning her adult responsibilities.

A girl in Cairo is circumcised

Kingston, Jamaica

The use of substances in rituals

The use of incense, hallucinogens, or alcohol to alter the senses is a common initiatory practice worldwide. In our culture, we will often . . .
1) Smoke cigars at the birth of a child 2) Toast champagne at weddings 3) Take wine at Christian communions 4) Do shots on our 21st Birthday
A rite of passage (close to death)

Quite Forest in Italy

Yoda

Pecos River, Texas

The Importance of Hunting Around the World

While hunting is no longer a vital skill in most of the world, many people in traditional societies still consider the first hunt to be a necessary milestone on the road to adulthood.
1) Among the Kung in Namibia, a boy traditionally cannot marry until he has made a kill 2) Among the Yupik of Alaska, a passage to manhood occurs when a boy kills his first seal

Dani tribesmen of Indonesia

Like American football, such games provide a more harmless outlet for the warrior energy

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Vanuatu Jumpers

 Boys everywhere have a need for rituals marking their passage to manhood. If society does not provide them, they will inevitably invent their own.
Joseph Campbell

This is one explanation for the extreme popularity of Fraternities throughout America

East Los Angeles

 Trials of strength and endurance are common to all initiations. The adult must be brave in the face of danger and must be steadfast in the face of pain.
Professor J. A. Jackson

Maasai woman in Kenya

American adolescents also ritualistically mark their bodies. Is this to become part of, or separate from, the community?

Coming of Age
Western cultures have largely abandoned the initiation rites that honor the adolescent transition Modern society has provided adolescents with NO rituals by which they become members of the tribe, of the community. All children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind.--Joseph Campbell Consequently, we have too many men and women in arrested developmentnot becoming adults, acting like irresponsible children well into their 30s

Dallas, Texas

Prom Night--Louisville, Kentucky

Prom NightPapue New Guinea

 Comparison of rites from all over the world suggest that these initiation rites themselves possess an archetypal structure, for the same underlying patterns and procedures are universally apparent.
Anthony Stevens

Marriage

Marriage
For most of humanitys history, marriage was more an alliance between families than a bonding to two individuals in love Marriages were formed to reinforce kinship lines or improve the social or economic status of the families involved Starting in Europe in the 12th Century, a new impulse began to take holdRomantic Love
Marriage became about personal happiness

Today, our marriages join love, happiness, sex, procreation, finance, & family ties into one relationship
Without a doubt, the most complicated of all relationships No wonder 51% of all marriages end in divorce Are we asking too much from this one relationship?

A Berber girl in Morocco

(and the legend of Isli & Tilsit)

Kyoto, Japan

Marriage Question #1
Question: Why are bridesmaids all dressed a like? Answer: Roman law required ten witnesses to make a wedding legal. Several of these witnesses dressed up exactly like the bride and groom to confound any evil forces who might show up uninvited.
*There is no answer, however, why bridesmaids dresses are always ugly

Sydney, Australia

Marriage Question #2
Question: Why is the ring placed on the third finger on the left hand? Answer: The ancient Greeks believed that a vein in this finger ran directly to the heart.
*Note: Because of an advertising campaign by the diamond industry in the 20th Century, we now all think it is customary to give diamond rings for engagements.

Lendak, Czechoslovakia

Marriage Question #3
Question: Why does the bride stand to the left and the groom to the right? Answer: Ex-suitors, romantic lunatics, and other thugs sometimes rushed the alter to take the bride. Thus, the groom needed to keep his right hand free so he could grab his sword.
*Lesson: Always steal the bribe of a left handed groom!

Louisville, Kentucky

Marriage Question #4
Question: Where did the term Honeymoon come from? Answer: 4,000 years ago in Babylon, it was customary for the bride's father to provide his new son-in-law with mead (beer made from honey) for one lunar cycle (or one month). Honey month became Honeymoon.
*Note: Walt Disney World is the #1 site in America for Honeymooning (replacing Niagara Falls)

U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland

Northeastern Romania

Marriage Question #5
Question: How much money does the average American wedding cost (clothes, food, drink, etc.) ?

Answer:

$21,000

Morocco

Wedding Nights Around the World

1) Among the Hausa of Nigeria, for example, grooms bring their brides gifts such as perfume and blouses to persuade them to be romantic 2) In Taiwan, a marriage is consummated on the wedding night, but only after the bride and groom are teased for a considerable amount of time 3) In Zambia, a bride walks backwards into her husbands house and is escorted to her wedding bed by an older woman who has acted as her sex and marriage instructor. She presents her husband with fertility beads, each representing a future child.

 Every culture has a wedding ceremony that serves as a rite of passage for the two young participants. It marks the end of who they were and the beginning of who they will become.
Marion Woodman

Death

Death
When a loved one dies, we go through a gamut of emotions
Denial, bargaining, anger, depression, & acceptance (5 stages)

To help us deal with this painand to help us face our own mortalitysocieties throughout the world have created a diverse set of rituals
These rites all honor the deceased and consecrate their passage to the next world

Unlike most Eastern and non-industrial societies, modern Western cultures (including USA) seem to resist and insulate the reality of death
Dont talk about it; If you do, you are morbid and depressing

 Death is the key to the door of life. It is through accepting the finiteness of our individual existences that we are enabled to devote each day of our liveshowever long they may beto growing as fully as we are able.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Taoist Funeral, China

Transylvania, Romania

A Christian cemetery in Colma, California

Understanding our Rituals

1) Mourning clothing: Pagans dressed in different (special) clothes so that the evil spirits would not recognize them. 2) Covering the face: Once believed that the deads spirit would escape through the mouth & nose 3) The firing of gun shots (21-guns): Once spears were thrown in the air to try to hit the evil spirits covering of the deads grave 4) Why flowers: Floral offerings were originally intended to gain favor with the spirit of the deceased

The First Act of Humans

Traces of pollen discovered in burial caves in northern Iraq indicate that Neanderthal communities put flowers on the graves of their dead. So with bouquets of flowers or gravestones of marble, humankind has been marking the final resting places of loved ones for at least 60,000 years.

Soviet Moldavia

Leatherwood, Kentucky

 Family and community involvement in death & dying rituals [like that found in Leatherwood] give individuals the comfort of shared responsibility and shared mourning. It helps all involved to view death as a part of life.
Kubler-Ross

Dani people of Irian Jaya

Some (less-than-poetic) Death Rituals

1) Some cultures burn the body out of fear 2) Some simply run away from the dead, leaving them to rot 3) Zoroastrians left their dead to be devoured by vultures. To bury it would be a defilement to mother earth 4) In Tibet, dogs are used for this purpose, believing that those eaten by dogs will be better off in the other world 5) Many African tribes still grind the bones of their dead and mingle them with food to be eaten

New Orleans, LA

Find picture

Indian Funeral Pyre

Bathurst Island, of the coast of Northern Australia

 Do not go gentle into the good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
(writing of his fathers death)

A Baimi tribesman of Papua New Guinea

Concluding Thoughts
The importance of this finding
1) We find that there are 4 universal rites & rituals that all cultures enact regardless of race, religion, & ethnicity 2) We find that these universal rites & rituals supply each culture with meaning and significant to their lives 3) We find that at a deeper cultural level, we are a lot more alike than we are different

The End