It wasn’t the only rite of passage I went through. In Scouts I remember the night I spent camping in the woods alone to pass an important milestone. My confirmation into the Church of England, even against my protests, nonetheless left me somehow transformed. Entering the “Sixth Form” too: in my school, the sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds wore a different uniform and, crucially, had our own common room.
I imagine most of us, especially most men, have similar stories. The process of moving from childhood to adulthood is not one that happens simply with the passage of time. Sometimes we describe these rites of passage as “marking” a key transition, but that’s not true, at least if they’re done right. As religion scholar Connor Wood points out, “Initiation rites don’t ‘mark’ the change from boy- or girlhood to adulthood, because there’s no clear physiological change to mark (especially for boys, who don’t have a first menstrual period). Instead, they cause the transition, which is cultural in nature, not biological or hormonal.”
Read Full Article »