What Are Rites of Passage?
Looking at watershed moments that define the human experience.
Tipi Liner Depicting Cehupa's (Jaw) Exploits (Detail)
Muslin, paint, porcupine quills, rawhide, Native tanned hide, cotton cloth, tin cones, dye, wool yarn, ink, string, thread
Purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W’18 Fund
2009.10
Let us consider this tipi liner made by a member of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux tribe. The painted hide referred to as Tipi Liner Depicting Cehupa’s (Jaw) Exploits (about 1910) is a visual narrative that depicts countless rites of passage experienced by the young man Cehupa. Such liners were often painted by the very warriors they depict. Popular motifs included successes in warfare or raiding parties, but each scene was subject to scrutiny from fellow warriors; it would have been dishonorable to exaggerate one’s triumphs.§ Like most tipi liners, Cehupa’s includes moments of action and excitement: he chases horses and fires guns. These scenes, however, are punctuated with small vignettes from tender moments in Cehupa’s life. In one such scene, Cehupa is painted with his back to the viewer, with a blanket draped around his and his wife’s shoulder. In the eyes of a Lakota warrior, this intimate scene of courtship was considered just as impactful as any bison hunt. Throughout the composition, Cehupa is shown learning and adapting. When every disparate motif is considered as one piece of a complex mosaic, we glean a more profound understanding of Cehupa and the life he led. We recognize his failures, his triumphs, and the rites of passage that brought him each one.
No matter your cultural identity, chances are you have experienced a rite of passage. Cultural anthropologist Arnold van Gennep defined such moments as “rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position, and age.”† This exhibition focuses on a few of these changes—notably, shifts between states, social positions, and age—and explores how those transitions are consecrated across cultures.
While some rites of passage are celebrated with ceremonies that might last only a couple of hours, many transitions occur gradually. For example, before you become a parent, you may experience many months or even years of anticipation and preparation until, finally, you have a child. Other transitions may reflect an altered way of thinking about or interacting with the world; you thought this until XYZ made you think that. In any case, these moments are often educational, broadening your understanding of the human experience. Sometimes transitions are sanctioned by a broad social network, which may consummate the transition with codified rituals or celebrations. Others occur internally, going unrecognized or unappreciated by large swaths of society, or even deemed taboo. The treatment of rites of passage also varies across cultures and circumstances. Does this tension diminish the significance of these rites? Certainly not. Rites of passage are always momentous for those who undergo them. Regardless of the pomp and circumstance with which they are treated, their significance is determined by the person experiencing them and confirmed by the culture that defines them.
