Looking at Transitions: An Anthropological Perspective

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” said Simone de Beavoir. Neither are we born a child, a Londoner, a Scot, a healer, a warrior, a scientist, a leader. The process of ‘becoming’ these things and many others – an adult, a mother, an elder, an ancestor, for example – is managed across the world through an astonishing variety of rites of passage. We also use special rites to celebrate other sorts of transition – from one season to another, from one monarch or government to another, from war to peace, from life to death…… This course will investigate various transition rites, raising questions about the ethics as well as the effect of different traditions.

The emphasis is on finding out about the subject by actually doing some Anthropology. That will involve examining the ways people think and act around life transitions in different cultures, including our own.