Life-cycle Ritual Practice

Documented practices marking a transition in an individual life course, the domain Arnold van Gennep's own rites-of-passage framework established: the rite of passage itself as the general category, Margaret Mead ethnographic account of adolescent transition in Coming of Age in Samoa, couvade, a father ritual observance during his partner childbirth, and endocannibalism, the ritual consumption of a deceased kin group's own member as part of mortuary practice. Belongs here: a documented practice marking birth, coming of age, death or another individual life transition. Does not belong here: a marriage-specific transactional practice, grouped under Marriage and Alliance Practice, even though marriage is itself a life-cycle transition.