Rites of passage: Girls’ Puberty Rituals February 12, 2001

Some logistics... Please hand your papers to your left papers returned to you next week New topic distributed this Wednesday –remember, based mainly on course material Hand-out on Turner reading: please read it carefully! Discussion stress-reduction experiment!

Religious ritual human actions that seek to intensify communication between the human and spiritual realms –People and spirits not always in intense contact –Need to set aside (render “sacred”) time and space –purification as a way to “set aside” –The meanings of “sacra” and “religare”

Kinds of religious rituals Rites of affliction/curing Seasonal rites Rites of passage

The structure rites of passage Separation –entering a space/time separate from everyday life Liminality –metamorphosis through the mystical action of symbols Return –re-emergence and re- incorporation into group

Step 1: Separation of time and space The Tiyyar (Kerala India) and the Navajo (US) –setting aside (sacralizing) time –setting aside (sacralizing) place

Step 2: The liminal phase and the work of symbols among Navajo –Girl’s body treated differently wears special clothes and jewelry, becomes Changing Woman become “moldable” cannot scratch herself any old way rich and much food to “fatten up” –Divine fertility the pit in the earth divine sex with sun

Phase 2: liminality and the work of symbols among the Tiyyar Symbol of motherhood and nurturance –seated on milkwood tree bench Symbols of sexuality –presented with hunting deity’s arrow –mud pot filled with precious items –covering leaf, rice and arrow Symbols of birth and fertility –extraction of objects

Phase 3: Emergence and return Emergence of the girl among the Tiyyar –water and the cosmic tree Emergence of the girl among the Navajo –transferring the power of the sun and earth to feeding the community

What is do these rituals do? What are some of the powerful messages that these rituals send to the girls and to their communities? How do they use spiritual power to change to state of human beings?