Van Gennep in his famous work, “The Rites of Passage” states that as individuals pass through different stages

of life, they experience rites of passage, meaning that they participate in certain rituals to mark stages of their
lives and their place in society. Many of these events and rituals are concerned with a person coming-of-age and
becoming an adult.
He further elaborates that larger societies, there are distinct social groupings that become accentuated and their
autonomy increases as we move from higher to lower levels of civilization. The only clearly marked social
division in modern society is that distinguishing between the secular and religious worlds, which have undergone
various changes within nations and states since the time of the Renaissance. However, due to fundamental
differences between them, secular and religious groups as a whole have remained separate throughout the
countries of Europe. These groups break down into smaller societies or subgroups, such as the higher nobility and
the landed gentry, high finance and small moneylending, and various professions and trades. For a man to pass
from group to group, he must fulfill certain conditions, all of which have one thing in common: their basis is
purely economic or intellectual. On the other hand, for a layman to enter the priesthood or for a priest to be
unfrocked, there is a need for ceremonies, acts of a special kind, derived from a particular feeling and a particular
frame of mind.
As we move downward on the scale of civilizations, we cannot fail to note an ever-increasing domination of the
secular by the sacred. In the least advanced cultures, the holy enters nearly every phase of a man's life, with acts
such as being born, giving birth, and hunting falling within the sacred sphere. Social groups in such societies also
have magico-religious foundations, and a passage from group to group takes on that special quality found in our
rites of baptism and ordination. At the simplest level of development, there are social groups that reach across
boundaries, such as a totem clan recognized as a single intertribal unit among all the tribes of Australia.
Bonds of caste present a more complicated problem, as differences based on occupational specialization are added
to those founded on kinship. Semicivilized peoples rigidly segregate the sexes in the economic, political, and
magico-religious spheres, while families are sharply defined. In conclusion, man's life resembles nature, with
stages and transitions occurring throughout the year. Ritual studies have made great progress, but we still lack
knowledge of the function or manner of operation of every single rite and the knowledge necessary to construct
a definitive classification of rites.
Sympathetic rites, based on the reciprocal action of like on like and opposite on opposite, were first considered
by Tylor. Later, many of their varieties were studied in Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium,
and the United States. However, none of the researchers adhering to the animistic school developed a rigorous
classification of the beliefs and rites they outlined. This is due to the influence of Adolf Bastian, who discovered
the concept of Völkergedanken ("folk ideas") in his youth.
Mannhardt's work led to a new orientation, which included studying the holy, sacred, pure, and impure. This
tradition was closely related to the Bastian-Tylor school and that of Mannhardt, Frazer, Smith, and their
successors. Contemporaneously, the dynamistic school emerged, with Marett and Hewitt taking a stand against
the animistic theory and proposing the dynamistic theory. This double stream of theory enables us to assert that
in addition to sympathetic rites and ritual with an animistic basis, there exist groups of dynamistic rites and
contagious rites. Sympathetic rites are not necessarily animistic, nor contagious rites necessarily dynamistic.
There are also distinctions between rites that act directly and those that act indirectly. A direct rite, such as a curse
or spell, is designed to produce results immediately without intervention by any outside agent. On the other hand,
an indirect rite, such as vows or religious services, sets into motion some autonomous or personified power, such
as a demon or a group of jinn. The effect of a direct rite is automatic, while that of an indirect rite comes as a
repercussion.
Lastly, positive rites (or volitions translated into action) and negative rites (now known as taboos), which are
prohibitions or commands "not to do" or "not to act," can be understood only in relation to the active rites with
which they coexist in a ceremony.
Further Gennep discusses the various types of rites in various ceremonies, such as pregnancy rites, childbirth
rites, and rites of passage. It highlights the difficulty in determining the proper interpretation for each case, as a
single rite may be interpreted in several ways or fit several rites whose forms differ greatly. He also notes that
general treatises are often based on external similarities rather than the dynamics of the rite, which is particularly
true in folklorists' work.
Here, Gennep explores all ceremonial patterns accompanying a passage from one situation to another or from one
cosmic or social world to another. It singles out rites of passage as a special category, which can be subdivided
into rites of separation, transition rites, and rites of incorporation. These three subcategories are not developed to
the same extent by all peoples or in every ceremonial pattern.
He also notes that in certain ceremonial patterns where the transitional period is sufficiently elaborated to
constitute an independent state, the arrangement is reduplicated. For example, a betrothal forms a liminal period
between adolescence and marriage, but the passage from adolescence to betrothal involves a special series of rites
of separation, a transition, and an incorporation into the betrothed condition.
Gennep then discusses the pivoting of the sacred in society, highlighting the variable nature of sacredness and the
role of rites in navigating it. Sacredness is not absolute but is influenced by specific situations, such as a man
moving from his tribe to a foreigner, a woman being sacred to all adult men, or a woman performing purification
rites. These "magic circles" pivot as a person moves from one place in society to another, with categories and
concepts operating in such a way that they shift the sacred from the profane to the sacred. Rites of passage are
used to reduce the harmful effects of these changes, which are regarded as real and important. He also defines
terms like dynamicism, animism, totemism, spiritism, polydemonism, and theism, which constitute religion and
their techniques, which are called magic.
The practice and theory are inseparable, with the term magico-religious used to describe the practice and theory.
The author also discusses the techniques of magic, which can be sympathetic, contagious, direct, indirect, positive,
or negative.
Van Gennep here does not claim that all rites of birth, initiation, marriage, and the like are only rites of passage.
They have their individual purposes, such as fertility rites, protection and divination rites, funerals, initiations,
propitiatory rites, ordinations, and rites of attachment to the deity.
Geneppe further mentioned that marriage constitutes the most important transitions from one social category to
another, because for at least one of the spouses it involves a change of family, clan, village, or tribe and sometimes
the newly married couple even establish residence in a new house. This change of residence is marked in the
ceremonies by rites of separation, focused on the territorial passage. This period of transition is commonly called
the betrothal. It consists of marriage ceremonies, including rites of separation and transition and incorporation
into the new environment. Then comes the rites of marriage, which consist of rites of permanent incorporation
into the new environment but which often include rites of individual union.
He further mentioned that in common law marriage there are groups of various kinds and sizes which are
interested in the union of two individuals. The collectivities are the two sex groups, represented by the ushers and
bridesmaids or by the male relatives on one hand and female relatives on the other, patrilineal or matrilineal
descent groups, the families of each spouse, groups such as a totem clan or caste and the local group. Marriage
has an economic aspect of varying importance and that acts of an economic nature become intertwined with the
rites of passage. The social groups are interested parties in the economic negotiations and arrangements. The
distribution of foods and rites involving the ransom of something coincide with rites of separation.
He had further stated that the bonds of marriage have joined not only two individuals but all the collectivities to
whom the maintenance of cohesion is important. He further mentioned the account of marriage among the
bashkirs, when the kalym or bride price is paid the girl’s father organizes a feast. Friends of the bride hide her in
the village. The young man will look for her. When he has found her, he gives her to the girls and returns, where
all the guests have gathered but before he enters he must break with his foot a red thread. The breaking of the
thread is a rite of passage, hiding and finding the bride is separation from the local sex group.
The so called rites of rape or capture express the resistance of the losing groups. They will vary in intensity
according to the value attached to the departing member and the comparative wealth of the parties involved. The
compensation will be in the form of a dowry, gifts, a feast, and money given in exchange for removal of one or
another of the obstacles which those interested place in the way of departure. Burckhardt’s account of marriage
among the Arabs of sinai. The husband and two other young men seize the girl and take her to her own father.
The relative of the husband covers her with a cloak. The girl’s mother and her female relatives dress her, and she
is placed on a camel but continues to defend herself while the groom’s friends hold her. It is apparent that at her
own home the bride is separated from the girls of her own age group. In addition to having the help of her own
age group, a girl may also be assisted by all women of her kin or tribe.
It is apparent that the bride price is amply compensated for by the gifts the bride’s relatives are required to give
her and that the girl’s forcible removal from the restricted sex group is effected by representatives of the sex group
of which she is about to become.among the khond of southern india the girl’s group includes not only her friends
but the young women in village. The ties of the young man or the girl with the former group are often so powerful
that several attempts are required before they are broken. In the same way, incorporation into the new groups such
as family, the social group of married men or women is not accompanied at once.
Among the rites of incorporation it is possible to isolate those which have an individual meaning and which unite
the two young people to each other, giving or exchanging clothes which are worn, using objects belonging to each
other are essentially rites of union. However, some rites of incorporation have a collective significance either
joining one or other of the individuals to new groups or uniting two or more groups. Within this category may be
included the exchange of gifts. Some rites are both individual and collective, the acceptance of a gift places a
constraint not only upon the individual who accepts it but also upon the groups to which he belongs. It is often
the first rite of the betrothal. A special rite of incorporation known as the marriage to the tree in the kol of Bengal,
marriage is an incorporation into the totem clan and therefore also an initiation rite. The kol clans are totemic, the
principal totems are the mango and the mahua.
The transitional phases of betrothal and initiation have been merged in such a way that they constitute a single
period from the beginning of initiation to the completion of a socialized sexual union. He further mentioned that
stages of marriage and especially the major one the betrothal have significant economic aspects. Moreover every
marriage is a social disturbance involving not just two individuals but several groups of varying sizes.
Lastly, he mentioned the ceremonies of divorce and widowhood as counterparts to those of marriage. The rites of
divorce among most peoples seem to be of the simplest kind. Ordinarily it is sufficient if the wife leaves and
returns to her parents house or if the husband physically removes his wife from their common house. Among the
Habe of the Nigar plateau if a marriage has been consecrated by a domestic ceremony, the spouse who is leaving
must break his or her ties with family deities by a sacrifice.