Re: Rites of Passage

Robert Snower (rs222@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 14 Aug 1996 03:22:53 GMT

Shannon Adams <shannon_adams@byu.edu> wrote:

>I am just finishing a paper dealing with a rite of passage among
>the people I studied. But I have a few curiosity questions for all you
>theorists and ethnographers.

>What purpose do rites of passage serve beyond the transfer of status?
>Is there some social-psychological motivation? What are the implications
>for secular (not ritual) peoples?

>Shannon

All rites of passage have a common thread, i.e., a common theme and
purpose: the quelling of individual sexual competition in favor of
the cooperation essential to the maintenance of a society.

Best wishes. R. Snower rs222@worldnet.att.net