Van Gennep's Rites of Passage

http://www.stthomasu.ca/~parkhill/rite101/ireps/gennep.htm

History of term
The term was popularized by the German ethnographer Arnold van Gennep (1873-
1957), in the early part of the twentieth century. Further theories were developed in the
1960s by Mary Douglas and Victor Turner. Joseph Campbell's 1949 text, The Hero with
a Thousand Faces and his theory of the journey of the hero were also influenced by van
Gennep.
According to van Gennep, rites of passage have three phases: separation, liminality,
and incorporation. In the first phase, people withdraw from the group and begin
moving from one place or status to another. In the third phase, they reenter society,
having completed the rite. The liminal phase is the period between states, during which
people have left one place or state but haven't yet entered or joined the next. It is a
state of limbo.
http://www.18pomegranates.org/lessons/1%20Bar-Bat%20Mitzvah%20as%20a%20Rite%20of%20Passage.doc.pdf