Step by Step
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Where the model comes from
Arnold van Gennep proposed in 1909 that rituals marking a change in social status — birth, puberty, marriage, death — all follow the same three-part structure, regardless of culture.
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Stage 1: Separation
The individual is symbolically removed from their old social status. This can be literal (leaving home) or symbolic (a ritual that marks the old identity as "ending").
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Stage 2: Liminality
The anthropologist Victor Turner expanded on this middle stage, calling it "betwixt and between" — the person no longer holds their old status but hasn't yet gained the new one. This in-between state is often treated as dangerous, sacred, or both, which is why liminal periods are surrounded by special rules and taboos.
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Communitas
Turner's related concept: liminal people often bond intensely with each other because they're temporarily outside the normal social hierarchy together (think: military boot camp recruits, or a cohort going through the same initiation).
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Stage 3: Incorporation
The individual re-enters society with a newly recognized status — now officially an adult, a spouse, or whatever the ritual conferred.
Applied Walkthrough
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Take a graduation ceremony.
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Separation: students stop attending regular classes and put on a cap and gown, a costume that marks them as different from their everyday selves.
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Liminality: during the ceremony itself, they're seated together, called up one by one, in a state that is neither "student" nor "graduate" yet — surrounded by pomp and formality that marks this moment as special.
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Communitas often shows up here too, as the graduating class feels a strong bond with each other. Incorporation: they walk across the stage, receive the diploma, and are formally welcomed back into society with the new title "graduate."
Exam Application
Exams test whether you can name the three stages in order without hesitating, map a rite of passage from your own life onto these three stages, and which theorist is attached to liminality versus the original three-stage model.
⚠ Common Trap
Don't confuse the order — liminality is always the middle stage, not the first or last. If an exam question describes the "in-between, neither-here-nor-there" phase, that's liminality, not separation.
✓ Quick Self-Check
1. Who proposed the three-stage model of rites of passage, and when?
Arnold van Gennep, in 1909.
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2. What are the three stages, in order?
Separation, Liminality, Incorporation.
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3. Who expanded on the liminal stage, and what did they call it?
Victor Turner, who described it as "betwixt and between."
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4. What is communitas?
The intense bonding that occurs between people who are together in a liminal state, outside the normal social hierarchy.
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5. Name two real-world examples of rites of passage besides graduation.
Any two of: bar/bat mitzvah, wedding, boot camp, puberty initiation rituals.
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