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They call this an antimetabole, with the name referring to the physical space
where rites are performed, as opposed to the original phrase, which involves a
more metaphorical passage from one state of being to another. A rite of
passage is a ceremony—or a more abstract transitional period—that marks some
change in a person’s life, often when they are still young. In some cases,
it’s specifically meant to mark someone’s development from youth to adulthood.
Bar Mitsvahs, Quinceñeras, and Sweet Sixteens are all about this concept, and
come at the age when that culture believes an individual sufficiently matures.
It doesn’t have to be based on a particular age, or there might be some
leeway. For instance, our ancestors used to have to wait to learn how to drive
land vehicles, and once they did learn this skill, it came with a sense of
independence that they usually did not feel before. It often happened at a
certain age, but it didn’t have to, and some people never learned. Different
people have different ideas about what someone needs to experience in their
life before they can be respected in some form or another. Some have believed
that you weren’t a man, for instance, until you participated in a physically
violent altercation. Others thought you really only needed to learn how to
hunt game, or go on some kind of lone journey in the wilderness. Some rites of
passage are a very specific set of rituals which offer symbolic practices to
represent the transition. They might be asked to drink a bitter drink to
symbolize the harsh realities of life, then receive a sweet candy to exemplify
the reward of a life well lived. Some of them their participants prepared
their whole lives for. A lot of the rites of passage shown here have been lost
to time as the culture who practiced them forgot, or had newer generations who
began to see less value in maintaining them. There’s a relatively new
tradition on Thālith al Naʽāmāt Bida where the current permanent residents
gift each of their younglings a stone every year of their lives. They are
expected to hold onto their collection between the ages of six and seventeen,
even as it grows, until their seventeenth birthday, when they throw all of
them over a cliff. These stones represent the care and attention the child
needed as they were growing up. The weight of them collectively represents the
burden they placed on their families. Ridding themselves of their collections
represents the second stage in their life, when they are now expected to fend
for themselves—to collect their own proverbial stones. That rite of passage is
here too, reenacted by visitors, so they can physically feel the meaning
behind the traditions. Other rites are performed exclusively by androids, such
as the human sacrifices, which thankfully, no culture today has continued to
observe. As I was saying about the birthday observances, there’s a lot of fun
here, and you can come just to party. But I hope you do venture out to the
other areas, and see some of the more somber and profound events. You can
learn about any of these things in the archives, but there’s nothing quite
like seeing it up close for yourself. I’ve learned a lot here already, even
though I’m an archaeologist, and I’m sure you will too.
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