The rites of passage

Birth, puberty, marriage, and death are, in all cultures, marked by ceremonies which may differ but are universal in function.

Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) was the first anthropologist to note the regularity and significance of the rituals attached to the transitional stages in man's life, and his phrase for these, "the rites of passage," has become a part of the language of anthropology and sociology.