Prof. Pamela Klassen
Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Winter 2002
Meeting Time: Tuesdays, 10-12, VC212
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2-4 or by appointment
Northrop Frye Hall 222, Victoria College
Phone: 585-4573; E-mail: p.klassen@utoronto.ca
In this course, we will explore rites of passage as rituals that shape and effect the transition of a person from one social status to another. Our exploration will follow paths of the life cycle from birth to death, including rituals such as birth, initiation, weddings, and funerals. Considering a range of religious traditions and theoretical writings we will analyze how rites of passage construct identity, in terms of gender, race, sexuality, class, and other sources of identity . Foremost in our readings and discussions will be issues such as how religion and the body mutually shape each other, what kinds of power ritual contains and creates, and the significance of rites of passage in contemporary North American society.
Every participant in this course needs to contribute the following: regular attendance at seminars; careful and considered reading and film viewing; respectful and engaged participation in class discussions; timely completion of written work. The following is a breakdown of the marks and due dates in the course:
· Weekly 1 page reflection-- 10%, due every class
· Two surprise quizzes-- 5% each, unscheduled
· Ritual description -- 10%, due 13/02/02
· Theoretical review-- 15%, due 06/03/02
· Paper proposal and presentation -- 10%, due 13/03/02
· Research paper -- 35%, due 10/04/02
· Participation -- 10%
· Reading Packet edited by Professor Klassen, available at Print City, 180 Bloor St. W., 416-920-3040.
· Mark Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
· Lis Harris, Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family. New York: Touchstone, 1995.
· Pamela Klassen, Blessed Events: Religion and Home Birth in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
· Vida Vendela. Girls on the Verge . New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
· All books are available at Toronto Women. s Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street, 416-922-8744.
This assignment provides a way for you to condense your reflections on the readings for the week, so that you come to class prepared for discussion. The one-page limit is meant seriously. Use this assignment as a way to formulate one or two substantive questions or comments provoked by the readings that you can then bring up in class. Write the paper using correct grammar and punctuation, and be sure to provide proper citations with page numbers for any quotes or references to the text. I will collect these papers each class, and hand them back once a month. Altogether you need to hand in at least 10 reflection papers, leaving you one week where you don. t have to hand one in.
There will be two surprise quizzes designed to test your knowledge of the readings. The quizzes will last for 10 minutes each and will take place at the beginning of two as yet undetermined classes during the term. Meeting the requirements of the reflection paper should ensure success on the quizzes.
Write a 3-4 page description of a rite of passage that you observed personally. You may describe a rite that you observed or participated in recently (and that you remember well) or one that you go to observe specifically for this exercise. In your description provide detail of the people involved, the things used, the setting, the mood, and the purpose of the rite. Use all of your senses to describe the smells, sounds, colours, tastes, and textures of the rite. Discuss whether you think the rite . worked. or not, and what sorts of tensions or conflicts the rite produced or reduced. Position yourself as a participant/observer in your text: why were you there, how did you feel, and how did your presence affect the rite? This is also an exercise in writing, so be conscious of writing style, grammar, and the way you tell the story of the rite.
Write a 4-5 page review of two theoretical articles assigned in the reader. (We will discuss appropriate articles in class). Describe the authors. theories of rites of passage (e.g. what are they, what do they do, who do they benefit) and compare the clarity, persuasiveness and utility of the theories. Feel free to read further in the works of the authors that you choose to review. Together, the ritual description and the theoretical review are meant to prepare you for writing the research paper, which will be a combination of ritual description and theoretical analysis.
This assignment should represent substantial progress towards the completion of your final research essay. that is, it is not a chance for you to throw together a few ideas, but an opportunity for you to discuss your work in progress with me (and the class). You must discuss your topic with me prior to handing in your paper proposal, and then submit a 3-page outline of your essay including the following:
· a thesis statement or organizing question
· methodology statement (i.e. how will you go about answering your question)
· section headings with brief descriptions of the section contents, i.e. how will you organize your research into a logical and lucid argument
· a briefly annotated bibliography of the primary and secondary sources you. ve read (or encountered in the case of fieldwork) to date
Each class member will present their paper proposal within a small group in the class on March 13.
Write a 13-15 page paper describing and analyzing a particular rite of passage. The rite may be a small, intimate one (e.g. a sister. s wedding) or a large, public one (e.g. Pierre Trudeau. s funeral). You may use an ethnographic approach (i.e. researching a rite you observed or participated in personally), a cultural studies approach (i.e. finding textual or visual sources that discuss rites of passage in contemporary North America) or an historical approach (i.e. finding visual and textual sources that describe a past rite), or a combination. The possible rites of passage are not limited to those we are covering in class. If you can make a convincing case that your chosen topic is a rite of passage, you can write about it, but you must tell me what your topic is by the end of February at the latest. Make sure you put to use what you. ve learned in the earlier writing and reading assignments in crafting this paper.
All assignments are due in class on the assigned due date. Late papers will receive a deduction of 1% per day. Essays must be clearly written (laser printers or ink-jet printers are strongly encouraged) and properly referenced. Plagiarism. representing someone else. s words as your own. is a serious offence that can result in expulsion. Trust your own ability to think and write, and make use of the various resources available at U of T that can help you do so (e.g. professors, teaching assistants, writing centres). My recommendation for a style guide is Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Also, see the U of T writing support website at www.utoronto.ca/writing
All readings are in the reading packet unless marked with a (B) for book or a (W) for website reading.
09/01/02: What are rites of passage?
16/01/02: A World of Ritual
·
Read: Lis
Harris, Holy Days (B).
23/01/02: Ritual theory
· Read: Van Gennep, Rites of Passage, 1-25; Turner, The Forest of Symbols, 19-33; Turner, The Ritual Process, 94-97; 166-178; Frankiel, . Ritual Sites in the Narrative of American Religion..
· Recommended: Carolyn Walker Bynum, . Women. s Stories, Women. s Symbols: A Critique of Victor Turner. s Theory of Liminality. in Fragmentation and Redemption (New York: Zone Books, 1991):27-51.
30/01/02: Engendering babies in Judaism
· Read: Laura Geller, .Brit Milah and Brit Banot. ; Magnus, .Simhat Lev: Celebrating a Birth. ; Kimmel, . The Kindest Un-Cut: Feminism, Judaism, and My Son's Foreskin. (W); Zaslow, . Circumcision and Brit: They're Not the Same Thing. (W).
· Recommended: Lawrence Hoffman, Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996
· Start reading: Pamela Klassen, Blessed Events (B).
06/02/02: Is Childbirth a Rite of Passage?
· Read: Klassen, Blessed Events: Religion and Home Birth in America, esp. chapters 4, 5, 6, & 7.
· Recommended: Robbie Davis-Floyd, . Ritual in the Hospital: Giving Birth the American Way. in Readings in Ritual Studies, Ronald Grimes, ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996): 146-158.
13/02/02: Coming of Age
· Read: Ronald Grimes, . Coming of Age, Joining Up. in Deeply into the Bone: Re-inventing Rites of Passage.
·
In-class library
presentation
20/02/02: Reading Week, no class
· Start reading: Vida Vendela, Girls on the Verge (B) and Mark Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood (B).
27/02/02: Initiations
· Read: Vida Vendela, Girls on the Verge.
· Recommended: Annette Lynch, Dress, Gender, and Cultural Change: Asian American and African American Rites of Passage. (Oxford: Berg, 1999).
06/03/02 Menstruation in North America
· Read: J. Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and E. Toth, . Woman Unclean: Menstrual Taboos in Judaism and Christianity. ; Joan Jacobs Brumberg, . Sanitizing Puberty: The American Way to Menstruate. ; Ines Talamantez, . The Presence of Isanaklesh: The Apache Female Deity and the Path of Pollen. ; Mary Douglas, . Introduction. and . The System Shattered and Renewed. in Purity and Danger.
· Recommended: Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, . A Critical Appraisal of Theories of Menstrual Symbolism. Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 3-50; Kathleen O. Grady and Paula Wansbrough, Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1997).
· Film: Under Wraps
13/03/02: Making Boys into Men
· Read: Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (B).
· Recommended: Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, . The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America. in Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 53-76.
·
Discussion of
Essay Proposals
20/03/02: Getting married
· Read: Nancy Cott, . Toward a Single Standard. and . Monogamy as a Law of Social Life. in Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation, pp. 77-131; Ellen Lewin, . Why in the World would you want to do that? Claiming Community in Lesbian Commitment Ceremonies.
· Film: Some Kind of Arrangement
27/03/02: The cultural construction of aging and illness
·
Read: Ursula K. LeGuin, . The
Space Crone. ; Wendy Rogers, . Sources of Abjection in
Western Responses to Menopause. ; Natalie Angier, . Mindful Menopause.
; Barbara Ehrenreich, . Welcome to Cancerland. ; Lesley A. Northup, . The Politics of Women. s
Ritualizing..
·
Recommended: Margaret Lock, . The Politics of
Mid-Life and Menopause: Ideologies for the Second Sex in North America and
Japan. in Knowledge, Power and Practice:
The Anthropology of Medicine in Everyday Life, Shirley Lindenbaum and
Margaret Lock eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993):330-363.
03/04/02: Dying, Death, and Mourning
·
Read: Stephen Prothero, .
Lived Religion and the Dead: The Cremation Movement in Gilded Age America.
; Myerhoff, . A Death in
Due Time: Construction of Self and Culture in Ritual Drama;. Isabel Allende, Paula,
pp. 289-294; 321-330.
· Film: . A Death in Due Time.
10/04/02: Consuming and Constructing
Rites of Passage in a Global Economy
·
Read: Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, . Stop Stealing
Native Stories.