What I've learned about transformation design thus far #25

Every traditional society, without exception, developed rituals to mark the transition from one life stage to another. Birth was ritualised. Coming of age was ritualised. Marriage, elderhood, and death were all marked by ceremonies that the community considered essential.

These were technologies of transformation. The Aboriginal Walkabout, the Lakota Vision Quest, the Samurai Genpuku, the Maasai Lion Hunt. Boys who underwent these initiations became a man. The identity shift was real, recognised by self and community alike. The privileges and responsibilities of adulthood were conferred not gradually but suddenly, in a ceremonial moment that divided life into before and after.