Highschool

 

Topic: Rites of Passage

Source:  Cultural ANTHRO. Chapter 7

Relation: In this chapter of ANTHRO the author brings up how High school students not only self identify but also how they identify others around them. This sort of grouping by others is considered to be a rite of passage into adulthood.

Description: Remember that day, 9^th grade, you stood with shaking knees at the sight of this huge high school campus. The upperclassmen standing out front of the campus, cat calling to the “new meat” (Freshman).  After you got over the initial fear of getting ripped to pieces you started to self identify who you were (or at least attempted to). The majority of the time however you would be classified into groups biased off of what others said. In Robbins he lists the major groups of cliques that normally exist on campus: Preps, Jocks, Rockers, Nerds, Punks, and “G’s”. No matter who you hung out with your group would comprise of who you were most comfortable around, meaning who you identified best with. So not only did other people classify you, you almost always agreed with the classification in order to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

Analysis: Four years of hell is what most people call high school. Others even call it a rite of passage. It is the first time that you can be actively judged by people who (for whatever reason) you want to please. Yet, as soon as you move on to the “real world” you set of values on classifications change. For the majority of us these values change to “keeping up with the Joneses”.  The cliques evolve into who has money, and who doesn’t. So when observing the high school world, it is a rite of passage into the real world.