Deeply into the Bone: Re-Inventing Rites of Passage

by Ronald L. Grimes

Over the past two decades, North Americans have become increasingly interested in understanding and reclaiming the rites that mark significant life passages. In the absence of meaningful rites of passage, we speed through the dangerous intersections of life and often come to regret missing an opportunity to contemplate a child's birth, mark the arrival of maturity, or meditate on the loss of a loved one. Providing a highly personal, thoroughly informed, and cross-cultural perspective on rites of passage for general readers, this book illustrates the power of rites to help us navigate life's troublesome transitions.

The work of a major scholar who has spent years writing and teaching about ritual, Deeply into the Bone instigates a conversation in which readers can fruitfully reflect on their own experiences of passage. Covering the significant life events of birth, initiation, marriage, and death, chapters include first-person stories told by individuals who have undergone rites of passage, accounts of practices from around the world, brief histories of selected ritual traditions, and critical reflections probing popular assumptions about ritual. The book also explores innovative rites for other important events such as beginning school, same-sex commitment ceremonies, abortion, serious illness, divorce, and retirement.

Taking us confidently into the abyss separating the spiritual from the social scientific, the personal from the scholarly, and the narrative from the analytical, Grimes synthesizes an impressive amount of information to help us find more insightful ways of comprehending life's great transitions. As we face our increasingly complex society, Deeply into the Bone will help us reclaim the power of rites and understand their effect on our lives.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Religion, Spirituality

393 pages, Hardcover

First published June 29, 2000

About the author

Ron Grimes is a Professor Emeritus in Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Reviews

[Jack Schwem · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I return to periodically to get insight and inspiration for rituals.

[Larry Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

a discussion of rites of passage, like birth, adulthood, and death, that gives an extensive historic overview and suggests ways we can adopt similar rites to modern life.

ronald grimes is an eminent scholar, the book is well written, and the sections on marriage and death rituals are particularly fascinating and informative.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

So odd. So rich. This was one of those books I took forever to read, not because I didn't enjoy it but because I enjoyed it so much. I'll grant that Grimes can be anecdotal in the extreme but loved the variety of those anecdotes and think he generally found solid take-aways in them. Generally I just love the way he writes about ritual.

[Jeltje Gordon-Lennox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.

[culley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating exploration of rites of passage with extensive discussion about the dearth of rites in America.