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- 1. Some like it liminal: Identity development in rituals and rites of passage BYD Dr Fiona Beals (Dr Phi)
- 2. Binge drinking had become an initiation ceremony or “rite of passage”, for teenagers, an Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC) speaker told a Nelson conference today. “There’s a widespread phenomenon to blame the young,” ALAC Principal Policy Advisor Wendy Moore said. “You open almost any newspaper and read how bad they are, how irresponsible they are, how they shouldn’t be drinking. But look at the rest of us; are we so responsible? “Actually the reason young people drink the way they do is because that’s the way many of us drink.” ALAC research showed some 785,000 New Zealand adults regularly indulged in binge drinking, she said. Teenage binge drinkers, who merely wanted to act like adults, regularly witnessed society tolerating and sometimes celebrating such behaviour. “Intoxicated people are regarded as good fun, adults swap stories of drunken acts from their youth as if they were badges of honour, and even quite gross outcomes such as vomiting in public seem acceptable,” Ms Moore said. “Binge drinking has become normal – a rite of passage – which starts with parents buying alcohol for teenagers in the hope of some kind of control.” From: http://www.alcohol.org.nz/media-centre/teenage-binge-drinking-rite-passa
- 3. Identity: Then and Now
- 4. Transitional Identity • What are transitions? – Developmental – Social • Traditional concepts of identity and transitions • Life is about multiple transitions • Within each transition we are repositioning ourselves and our identity/identities • The moment of transition is a moment of limbo (liminal moment) • These are moments of personal identity negotiation
- 5. Child ADULTTransition Traditional Identity Transitions ADOLESCENCE
- 6. The Liminal and Rites of Passage
- 7. The Liminal • Term coined by Victor Turner (1977) • Being in limbo – inbetween • Traditionally been connected to age – Adolescence (the moment between childhood and adulthood) • Traditionally the moment of limbo (liminality) has been celebrated through rituals or rites of passage • A. Van Gennep argues that rites of passage involve three elements – Separation – Transition – Re/Integration
- 9. Little Kunta Adult Kunta Liminal Third Kafo Manhood Training Juffure, West Africa Playing Herding Goats Respecting mother Hunter Women obey and respect him Council Member
- 10. Traditional Rites of Passage • Coming of age ceremonies – the Sacred Thread ceremony (Hindi) – al-khitan (Islam) – bar and bat mitzvah (Jewish) – first communion (Catholic) – the 21st , 40th and so on • Other religious rites (blessings, baptisms) • Weddings • Funerals
- 11. What These Rites of Passage Do • Allow you to separate yourself from mainstream life • Redirect you in future roles or your future self identity • Provide a ceremony or ritual for you to engage in when you are changing roles • Give recognition to the reality of change in one’s life and the need to have ‘space’ to make such a change
- 12. But What’s Happening • Rites of passage are not as evident in society in general (instead are firmly within religion) • Instead, developmental liminal moments are seen as a gradual change • And, young adults and others are creating their own liminal moments – their own liminal rituals to change between roles and identities
- 13. HOME WORK Friend Representative Worker Multiple Roles Parent Partner Flatmate Multiple Roles CONTEXT CONTEXT SOCIETY Liminal
- 14. Liminal Rituals • Coping with the complexity of identity through liminal rituals • These rituals can be either helpful or harmful – Television Vs Alcohol – The use of drugs httpwww.free-clipart.net
- 15. Clubbing and Pubbing in Young Adulthood
- 16. "There is certainly evidence that young people have forged their own rite of passage ... and that activities such as nightclubbing and alcohol consumption are central to such transitions ... adolescents try to enact their own rite of passage through indulging in adult behaviour such as drug- taking, alcohol consumption and sexual intercourse" (Northcote, 2006, p.4)
- 17. Clubbing and Pubbing: a rite of passage • This Rite of Passage is particularly evident in urban university culture • In many societies clubbing has become a rite of passage into adulthood • When we look at countries like New Zealand, we can also see pubbing as a rite of passage • In these contexts, young people use activities based on drinking, drugs, socialising, and sex to experiment with adult identities
- 21. Clubbing and Pubbing • Seen as adult icons that young adults can participate in • Desist as young adults gets older and takes on different roles • Can have negative implications for young people
- 23. Transitional Issues or Lifelong Problems? • Dehydration • Embarrassing/regretful incidences • Accidents/trauma etc • Alcoholism • Drug abuse • Unplanned pregnancies • Unwanted relationships
- 24. What positive or negative impacts can clubbing and pubbing have on personal biographies?
- 25. What influence can these youth constructed rites of passage have for future coping and adapting skills?
- 26. What positive or negative impacts can clubbing and pubbing have on larger social biographies?
- 30. The Power of the Liminal
- 33. Clubbing and Pubbing in the 30s • A small proportion of young adults continue to participate in clubbing in their 30s • For some pubbing becomes a lifestyle • A liminal ritual – Between night and day • There are three ways to view these adults 1. Adults partaking in rituals 2. Adults stuck in a rite of passage 3. Adults continuously constructing their own identities
- 34. Clubbing and Pubbing in the 30s • A place of ‘escape’ involving – Separation – Transition – Re/Integration • Incorporation into one’s identity • Redefining one’s identity
- 35. 1. Felt age 2. Look age 3. Do age 4. Interest age 5. Group reference Clubbing and Identity • Traditional conceptions of identity connected identity to age and biology • Contemporary conceptions acknowledge context and a cognitive (or psychological) dimension to identity • In clubbing, identity has five dimensions Identity is fluid and changing Involves the person in constructing and changing their identity
- 36. Clubbing and Pubbing • Offer sites in society where an individual can remove themselves (from society) redefine or reconstruct their identity integrate themselves back into society • Allow us to see how identity is no longer (or may never have been) one-dimensional • Allow us to see how individuals are attempting to reconstruct themselves and create their own identities
- 37. Resounding Issues • Just because clubs and pubs are liminal sites in society, they are not necessary ‘healthy’ sites • Through these sites ‘transitional issues’ (like binge drinking) may become lifelong problems • There is also a need to recognise other rituals we use as adults to allow ourselves a moment of re- definition • There is a need to think of other healthier rituals and to begin to promote these other issues
- 38. What some other rites of passage that young adults could participate in to replace the current emphasis on drinking?
- 39. What some other rituals that adults could participate in to reconstruct and define themselves?
- 40. In a time of multiple transitions it is important for us to make space for ourselves to prepare ourselves
- 41. • References • Braunias, S. (2000, September 2-8). Land of the tweens. New Zealand Listener, 175, 18-22. • Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: WW Norton & Company. • Goulding, C. (2004). Age is just a number: Rave culture and the cognitively young “thirty something”. European Journal of Marketing, 38(5/6), 641-658. • Haley, A. (1977). Roots. London: Picador. • Hall, G. S. (1905). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education: Volume 1. London: Sidney Appleton. • Harms, L. (2005). Understanding human development: A multidimensional approach. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. • Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V. (Eds.). (1998). Changing the subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivity. London: Routledge. • Hutson, L. (2007, 12 July). Bingeing a dire rite of passage. The New Zealand Herald, • Kenway, J., & Bullen, E. (2001). Consuming children: Education-entertainment-advertising. Buckingham: Open University Press. • Mechen, K., & Elliot, K. (2003). Mystery bus tours, slaves, masters and roosters: Challenges to changing drinking culture on the tertiary campus. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Drugs and Young People. from www.adf.org.au/pdf/dyp/DrinkSafe_screen.pdf. • Ministry of Youth Affairs. (2002). Youth development strategy Aotearoa: Action for child and youth development. Wellington: Ministry of Youth Affairs. • Northcote, J. (2006). Nightclubbing and the search for identity: making the transition from childhood to adulthood in an urban milieu. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(1), 1-16. • Ritchie, J., & Ritchie, J. (1984). The dangerous age: Surviving adolescence in New Zealand. London: Allen and Unwin, Port Nicholson Press. • Rite of passage. (2006, 20 July). Retrieved 25 July, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_passage • Smith, D. W. (2000). Rites of passage: Cabot therapists to offer eco-therapy for teens Retrieved 25 August, 2006, from: http://www.soulawakening.org/timesargus.html • Tupuola, A. M. (2004). Pasifika edgewalkers: Complicating the achieved identity status in youth research. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 25(1), 87-100. • Turner, V. (1977). Variations of a theme of liminality. In S. F. Moore & B. G. Myerhoff (Eds.), Secular ritual (pp.36- 52). Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum.
Editor's Notes
- Let’s put this lecture into context … Undie 500 video VUW students video This is a newspaper article from July last year about the worrying drinking behaviour of young people. Do you agree with what the author is saying? Why? Why not? Is it a youth problem? What evidence do we have? What socio-ecological factors/issues are being focused on? Where do you think interventions need to be directed?
- Okay, when we talk about transitions we are concerned with two factors: developmental and social. That is, every transition we go through in life involves a developmental change and a social change. So, when we use this idea of transition in concepts of traditional identity we really only think about one key transition – the transition between adolescence and adulthood. This transition involves developmental factors (changes in the cognitive, biological, and psychological aspects of the individual) as well as social factors (changes in structural relationships, i.e. moving away from home and the family, the movement from school to work, changes in friendships) and is really devoid of any contextual factors. In this traditional concept of identity we place more stress on the developmental factors and tend to associate any social factor with the developmental movement from adolescence to adulthood. Show Next Slide We can also apply this concept of transition to contemporary ideas of fluid identity. However, when we do this we should understand that the individual is continuously involved in transitions. We can use an idea of ‘work’/‘employment’ and ‘family’ to understand this. Traditional theories of identity (which stress one transition in adolescence) suited the context of the 1950s and 1960s and jobs and employment tended to be lifelong, so only one transition needed to be recognised. You left school, became a carpenter, and stayed a carpenter. You also married and tended to stay married to the same partner for most of your life. However, now we could have more than one job and more than one family in a lifetime. We are constantly involved in transitions between relationships and employment. Now, we can recognise that we are in transitions all the time – even moving between home and work or home and university is a transition. In every transition we make we are repositioning ourselves and our identity/identities. We should be careful to not associate multiple transitions with any change in contemporary society. It is true that we can now expect to be involved in more transitions; but, we could also argue that any association between transition and adolescence for any period of time is flawed. Across the ages, in almost every society, there has been recognition of multiple developmental transitions (from child to adult to old age) and social transitions. The only difference is now we find that during a single day we might go through multiple transitions involving differing identities – applying an idea of transition to contemporary identity stresses the transitions between contexts (social transitions) rather than an age-based (or developmental) transition. So, we can see a reflection between socio-ecological theories of development and contemporary ideas of identity – both stress the importance of context where development occurs within contexts which entail particular identities or roles. Because the concept of identity becomes quite complex when we look at it in a fluid and transitional way, some authors (e.g. Henriques, Hollway, Urwin, Venn, & Walkerdine, 1998) have argued that we should replace the term ‘identity’ with another ‘subjectivity’. The term ‘subjectivity’ allows us to recognise that we are subjects involved in constructing our own selves and how we construct our selves is very much dependent on context and the multiple dimensions in our lives. In this course, we are not requiring you to replace the term ‘identity’ with ‘subjectivity’ but we do want you to take one thing from these theorists and that is the idea of subject positions. Subject positions refer to the differing and possible positions a subject (individual) can occupy in differing times and at any one time. For example, in a classroom a teacher might occupy a gender subject position (male or female), an ethnic subject position, a sexuality subject position as well as occupying the subject position of teacher. Each of these subject positions interacts with each other and influences each other. Outside of classroom and/or school s/he may occupy other subject positions which influence and interact with his/her position as a teacher. So, subject positions are another way to understand identity – differing subject positions provide differing identities. We also need to understand that the transition between subject positions is a moment of limbo – a moment of suspension in which we move between subject positions or identities. In these moments we subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, negotiate our identity with ourselves. Show Second Slide
- The following diagram illustrates the traditional transition between adolescence and adulthood. The moment of transition is represented by the two-way arrow.
- Up to this point we have used the word ‘liminal’ without providing a proper definition. Arnold van Gennep (2006) and, later, Victor Turner (1977) used the word ‘liminal’ to define a moment between differing states. Traditionally, the liminal has been connected to age and adolescence. Adolescence is a time of being in between – you are not quite child or adult, instead you are becoming an adult. Even though we have policies like the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (Ministry of Youth Affairs, 2002) that help us to define adolescence (in the Strategy adolescence is between 12 and 24), we constantly find ourselves arguing about the times an adolescent is more adult than child. And, in something like youth crime, we might argue that a teenage offender is more child than adult or we might even find arguments for the opposite. You are adult enough to marry at 16, but not adult enough to be absent from school without a note from your caregiver. You are adult enough to drive at 15 but not adult enough to vote. Okay, so by now we are quite aware that adolescence is a liminal period in development. Traditionally, this moment of liminality has been celebrated through rituals or rites of passage. Van Gennep (2006) argues that rites of passage have three differing phases: Separation (where an individual is removed from a society or social group) Liminality/transition (where an individual is transformed from one state to another) Re/integration (where the individual (now changed) is reintegrated or incorporated into a society or social group).
- Using van Gennep’s (2006) model we look at a traditional society as having two distinct age groups – children and adults. Click Now, we can see adolescence as the liminal transition between the state of childhood and adulthood. Click Traditionally, this involved removing the child from society. Click The child would then go through a ceremony or rite which would transform them. Click They would then re-enter society as an adult. Their identity would be transformed from a child to an adult. Let us look at this again with an example of Kunta from the Alex Haley (1977) book Roots.
- Click Start Kunta lived in Juffure, a native African social group in West Africa. Click We first meet him in Roots as a little child – Alex Haley differentiates him by calling him ‘Little Kunta’. Click Little Kunta’s identity as a child is linked to his activities. He herds goats and plays with the other children. He is also in a lower position in the social group and has to respect the adults – especially the women and, in particular, his mother. Click As Kunta gets older he reaches third kafo (adolescence) – a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. Click The adult males then drag him outside of the community with several of his peers (who are at the same age). Click He then receives manhood training. He learns how to hunt and how to survive by himself in the wild. Click After the training he returns to society as Kunta (adult Kunta). Click Alongside his return his identities and roles change. He is no longer a goat herder but a hunter. He is able to participate in male council meetings and now the women – even his own mother – have to respect him and follow his orders.
- So, we can find evidence of traditional rites of passages ceremonies across many cultures and most religions.
- Traditional rites of passage allow for four things to occur as we move between developmental subject positions (between ‘child’ and ‘adult’). First, we are able to separate ourselves from mainstream life for a time in adolescence and young adulthood. During this time we can reconstruct ourselves and the roles we will have in adult society in a distinct and identifiable ritual. Second, and connected to the first, traditional rites of passage provide redirection on the developmental path. That is, they allow us to redirect our identities, to say goodbye to childhood and roles of childhood and hello to adulthood and the roles of adulthood. Third, and, of course, connected to the first two, traditional rites of passage give us a distinct ceremony or ritual to engage in when we change roles in society. These are points of time where we can celebrate, or reflect on, the past and look forward to the future. They provide us with a time of reflection without the nuisances of everyday life. Finally, traditional rites of passage allow us to recognise the reality of change in our life and they also allow us to recognise that when change is happening we need to have ‘space’ to reposition ourselves, stabilise ourselves, and move forward.
- However, and moving to the point of this module, in contemporary society traditional rites of passage are not as evident. In contemporary multicultural societies, we see rites of passage happening for very small distinct groups – religious groups and cultural groups. Western ceremonies, such as 21st birthdays, marriages, and funerals are still evident but their importance is not as strong as it would have been 50 years ago. Often we associate this diminishing of importance with political events (such as the civil union legislation or the lowering in the drinking age). However, we can see evidence even before these policy changes. As we know from earlier lectures, families have been changing in New Zealand and other countries. Furthermore, Ritchie and Ritchie (1984) provide us with a quote to show that, even in the early 1980s, the 21st was losing significance. Reflection Activity What do you think are the outcomes of the diminishing importance of rites of passage for New Zealand young people? Do we need rites of passage? Why? The diminishing role of rites of passage have been of some concern for adults. If we were to search the internet for “rites of passage”, we would see that many sites are dedicated to the re-establishment of teenage rites of passage and that there have been many programmes (especially wilderness-based programmes) created to give young adults a rite of passage into adulthood.
- Okay, so we should be familiar with this diagram. However, here I have moved the side arrows into the centre because I need the room at the sides now for other things. Looking at this first part of this flash diagram, we can remind ourselves of the importance of context and how moments of transition (liminality) occur between contexts like home and work and within contexts. To cope with the ‘stress’ of having to change our roles, identities, or subject positions we tend to consciously (and at times subconsciously) engage in rituals. Click So, often, without realising it, we have different rituals to move between contexts. For example, we might ritualistically take a shower in the morning to wake ourselves up to get ready for work. We might ritualistically have a coffee ‘to get ourselves ready for the day’ (i.e. the roles we have at work and home). We might insist on listening to music as we get ourselves ready or as we commute to work. Click In the home we might also have little rituals to move between roles or identities. Coffee (or tea) is another logical example we can use of a ritual. I know that my mother used to have a ritual of having a coffee between roles (mother, housekeeper, disciplinarian etc) and now I still use tea (my preferred drink) between different roles at home. Another ritual we can see in a flat and a home is when an individual uses television and video games to get themselves ready for another role. In a typical student flat, often some individuals spend more time in the ritual (the liminal moment of getting themselves prepared) than in the actual role into which they are transitioning. Click Even in the workplace we can see liminal rituals. Examples of these include coffee, email/the internet, and reading the daily newspaper. We might use these rituals between differing tasks (to get our head thinking clearly for the next task) or we might use these rituals to move between roles – such as a researcher and then a member of a group meeting to discuss social events in the work place.
- As we can see, we use rituals in many ways throughout our day to cope with the complexity of the many contexts we are involved in and the many roles, or identities, we have to engage with, and change into, throughout the day. These rituals can be either helpful or harmful to us. Watching a television programme causes us some harm if used to excess (obesity, poor quality social relationships etc). In contrast, using alcohol or drugs excessively may be incredibly harmful in all dimensions of our lives. It is important that we observe and become aware of the differing rituals in which we engage. Many of these rituals we would have started engaging with earlier in life. Some of these rituals will reflect the rites of passage in which we may have engaged. This is especially so when the rite of passage has been one created by our own generation as part of our social biography (c.f. Harms, 2005).
- Earlier in this module we established that, outside of a religious context, contemporary society no longer sees traditional age-based rites of passage as significant and important. Even the 21st is no longer as significant as it was ten years ago. Nowadays young adults are having to create their own rites of passage, which are often based on adult rituals. And, often these rites of passage are not necessarily based on healthy adult rituals. For example, many young people engage in drinking, alcohol, and sex within hazing (university initiations), clubbing (nightclubbing), and pubbing. This quote from Northcote (2006) illustrates this point:
- We can particularly observe clubbing and pubbing rites of passage in university and tertiary education environments. In a way, it is like the university is a liminal institution (an institution situated within a society but clearly distinct and separate) where young people are separated (as adolescents), transformed, and re-integrated into society (as adults). Northcote (2006) and others have argued that clubbing in particular has become a rite of passage in western societies. However, in New Zealand we can see evidence of pubbing, in particular, as a rite of passage in many small towns – especially when the drinking culture is associated with sport culture (such as rugby, touch rugby etc) where a young person comes of age when they can handle a drink after a game. In university cities like Dunedin, pubbing is just as important, if not more important, than clubbing. In both of these contexts, we can observe young people engaging in adult activities. These activities are often based on drinking, drugs, socialising, and sex. Through participating in these activities, young people are able to experiment with adult identities and roles. For these young people the club and the pub becomes a liminal site in which they are transformed, their relationships are transformed, and their roles are transformed. Have a click through the following flash animation to see some of these transformations
- The club and pub work by providing young people a site to transform themselves into adults. Often young people start clubbing and pubbing as students. Young people tend to desist in their use of the pub and club as adults where they have a new identity in the work place and home.
- So, literarily the pub and club stand as a place of liminality between adolescence and adulthood. However, we probably all know that from our own experiences, the pub, in particular (or the drinking associated with clubbing and pubbing) may become a ritual in adulthood.
- Finally (but not finitely) the pub and club also stand as a liminal site between relationships. Young adults often start pubbing and clubbing when they are still associated with their parental family and when they are placing stronger emphasis on the peer group. Often when young adults reduce their involvement in these activities it is when the focus of their relationships is on their own families (their partners and their own children).
- So pubbing and clubbing are adult ‘icons’ in which young people can participate. Generally, most of us engage in pubbing and clubbing when we are young adults and we tend to desist, reduce, or even change the way that we use these activities as we get older. However, pubbing and clubbing are not necessarily ‘healthy’ rites of passage. Pubbing and clubbing can have a negative impact on young adults (when they are still young and as they get older).
- There are many issues attached to the use of clubbing and, especially, pubbing as a ritual and rite of passage. When we think about it, many of these are logical. When we use pubs and clubs as a rite of passage we risk: Dehydration Embarrassing/regretful incidences Accidents/trauma etc Alcoholism Drug abuse Unplanned pregnancies Unwanted relationships When we look at these issues we can see that most are immediate. That is, as soon as a young adult starts clubbing or pubbing they encounter several immediate risks like dehydration (especially through drug taking), exposing themselves to embarrassing or regretful incidences (fighting, flirting etc), and accidents and trauma (through fighting, driving and other behaviours. However, pubbing and clubbing do not just pose issues for a young adult within their transition to adulthood. Pubbing and clubbing can also lead to life-long issues or issues that have lasting effects and an impact on the rest of our lives. Examples of these issues are alcoholism, drug abuse/addition, unplanned pregnancies, and unwanted relationships (with the experiences that come with these relationships). So we need to be mindful of these issues and, as practitioners, we need to think of ways of allowing young adults to go through a rite of passage without having any negative consequences.
- Okay, we just have to look at any pub and club in New Zealand to see that adults in their 30s, 40s, and beyond still use clubbing, and especially pubbing, as a ritual beyond young adulthood. We can see this in Goulding’s (2004) article where she looks at how clubbing has become a ritual for many 30 somethings. Goulding argues that we need to look at how adults continually construct their identity. Hence, we can infer from Goulding that we need to use a contemporary notion of identity to look at the clubbing experiences of adults. Basically, adults continue to use nightclubs (and pubs) as liminal places between night and day. In the club (or pub) we can see adults separate themselves from the many roles they have in society and reconstitute themselves in the club (as a dancer), and in the pub (as a drinker). We can view these adults in three ways: We could see these adults as partaking in rituals. We could see these adults as being stuck in a rite of passage. Finally, we could also see these adults continuously constructing their own identities through their behaviours, actions, and activities.
- Essentially, the pub and the club become a space of ‘escape’ (although Goulding (2004) would not use this word) involving the three elements of liminality (separation, transition/liminality, and re/integration). Adults incorporate clubbing (or pubbing) into their identity and then redefine their identity through their engagement.
- Now, we know that traditional conceptions of identity connect identity to age and biology; whereas, contemporary conceptions of identity acknowledge context. Goulding (2004) argues that contemporary conceptions of identity also acknowledge a cognitive (or psychological) dimension to identity and that this identity occurs over five dimensions. These dimensions incorporate: how a person feels, looks; what a person does and is interested in; and the group of people the person associates themselves with. When we use Goulding’s five dimensions of identity we acknowledge that identity is fluid and changing (some days we may feel 18 whilst others we may feel 40; some days might just be ‘bad hair’ days). We also acknowledge that we, ourselves, pay some part in the construction of our own identity (we might consciously buy certain clothes because of the identity we want to portray to others).
- Okay, if we look at clubbing and pubbing as rituals in adulthood identity construction, we should come to four conclusions: First, we can see that clubs and pubs offer sites in society where an individual can remove themselves (from society), redefine or reconstruct their identity and integrate themselves back into society. Second, we can see that identity is no longer (or may never have been) one-dimensional. Finally, we can see that, through adult rituals like pubbing and clubbing, individuals are attempting to reconstruct themselves and create their own identities.
- However, just because clubs and pubs are liminal sites in society, they are not necessarily ‘healthy’ sites. Through these sites ‘transitional issues’ (like binge drinking) may become lifelong problems within the individual – they might not just be a liminal transition but a full blown identity which affects their everyday life. So, we need to recognise other rituals we use as adults to allow ourselves a moment of transition re-definition between identities. We need to think of other healthier rituals and to begin to promote these other issues Show Close Up Item
- There is nothing wrong with rituals and rites of passage, but need to ensure that as life becomes more complex and the traditional transitions fade away that we do incorporate spaces in our life to enjoy, wind down and prepare ourselves for the rest of the journey. Don’t get lost in the rat race but take a moment to reflect on yourselves and who you are.