Week 13 Discussion — Is It Still a Rite? — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Hook

Think about the last graduation, team tryout, or lucky routine you were part of, and whether it changed anything or only marked a change that had already happened. This week you met two definitions of religion, myth and ritual, van Gennep's three phases of a rite of passage, liminality and communitas, Malinowski's account of magic and uncertainty, Evans-Pritchard's account of witchcraft as explanation, revitalization movements, and the market's opening bell read as a calendrical ritual.

Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: Does a present-day graduation still do what van Gennep (1909) described, or has it become mostly a celebration of a change that already happened? One side holds that it still works as a rite of passage: graduates are set apart in caps and gowns, wait in a liminal middle as no longer students and not yet graduates, often feel a bond with fellow graduates they barely knew, and are welcomed back in a new status. The other side holds that the real change of status happens elsewhere, when the last grade posts and the degree is recorded, so the ceremony marks a change rather than making one, and its middle phase is too short to feel liminal. Which side do you find stronger so far, and why? Use rite of passage, the three phases, liminality, and communitas, and the words and gestures the ceremony uses, state the other side at its strongest, and say what would change your view.

Option B: Malinowski argued, from Trobriand open-sea and lagoon fishing in the 1910s, that magic is used where outcomes are uncertain. Is it fair to call an athlete's pregame routine or a student's lucky shirt "magic" in that sense? One side holds that it fits: a ritual aimed at one outcome, used before the uncertain event and not the safe one, is the pattern Malinowski described. The other side holds that the comparison stretches the term: the Trobriand case sat inside a whole community's shared knowledge and worldview, while a personal habit may carry little shared meaning, so calling it magic can flatten both. Which side do you find stronger so far, and why? Use magic, ritual, religion, and worldview, and the words or gestures the routine uses, state the other side at its strongest, and say what would change your view.

There is no single right answer. Both questions are open, because how much a ceremony still does, and how far a term travels from its first case, depend on the evidence you weigh and on how much you claim from it. Pick the option you actually care about, and tell us your reasoning.

Expectations

Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.

Working on your own: this version of the discussion is written entirely from your own reasoning, in your own words.

Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):

• Say which option you chose.
• For Option A, say whether a present-day graduation still works as a rite of passage or mostly marks a change that already happened; for Option B, say whether calling a personal luck routine magic fits Malinowski's sense of the term.
• Name the phases in order, place liminality and communitas in the middle phase, and keep magic and religion apart.
• Give your judgment, with a reason, and give the other side its strongest case.
• Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.

Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):

• Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
• A substantive reply does more than agree: note where a classmate swapped liminality and communitas or treated magic and religion as one, offer the strongest case for the side they did not take, or name what they would need to observe to settle their case. "Nice post!" on its own does not count.

What a strong post looks like:

I chose Option A. I think a graduation still works as a rite of passage, because the caps and gowns set graduates apart, the wait to be called is a real liminal middle, and the shared hush before names are read can build communitas among people who barely spoke all year. Still, the other side is strong: the degree is recorded before anyone crosses the stage, so the ceremony may mark a change more than make one. I would want to ask several graduates whether they felt different after the tassel turned before I decided how much the ceremony itself does.

Notice how it names the phases, places liminality and communitas in the middle, gives the other side its due, and says what it would still check. That is the bar.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.

Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.

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