The Power of Rights

Van Gennep argued mistakenly that rites of passage were explained by identifying them as mechanisms enacting role-change. He was right to emphasise the ordered sequence of actions as crucial to an explanation of such ritual. The acknowledged purpose of rites of passage is to change individuals but an analytical view must be that the individuals are themselves part of the ritual. Their transfer from one state to another serves to manifest the division between these states and represents distinct and opposed concepts. Initiation emphasises the distinction between ignorance and secret knowledge, which confers power on initiates. The ritual constitutes an experience which imparts understanding, a form of knowledge which supports the authority of elders. The successful endurance of ordeals by the candidates and their correct responses to administered oaths are accepted as proofs that the ritual has effected a change in them. The efficacy of ritual is thus self-validating, since ritual is ordered in a sequence which can be seen as a causal chain of events; at the same time ritual demonstrates the power underlying the authority of experience.