This book explores the prevailing role of rites of passage, ritual, and ceremony in contemporary children’s lives through the lens of modern-day incarnations of uniformed youth movements. It focuses on the socialising ritual and customary practices of present-day grass-roots Scout and Guide groups, asking how Britain’s largest and best-known uniformed youth organisations employ ritualised activities to express their values to their young members through language and gesture, story and song, dress, and physical artifacts. The author shows that these practices exist against a backdrop of culturally-constructed beliefs about what constitutes the ‘good child’ and ‘good childhood’ in twenty-first century Britain, with in-movement practices intended to help children develop positively and prepare for social life. The book draws on case study accounts of group performances, incorporating the voices of children and adults reflecting on their practices and experiences.
Author(s): Catherine Bannister
Series: Studies in Childhood and Youth
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 206
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: A Problem of Passage? Perceptions and Misperceptions Around ‘Missing’ Rites of Passage for Young People in the Modern West
What Are Rites of Passage (and Why Do They Matter?)
Rituals of Adolescence
Rites of Passage and the Social Construction of Childhood
Contemporary Status Passage: Lost, Legislated or Imagined?
Scouting and Guiding as Invented, Passaging Traditions
The Structure of This Book
References
Chapter 2: The Ritual Roots of Scouting and Guiding
Why Youth Organisations?
Early Youth Organisations
Influence One: The English Public School System
Influence Two: The Armed Forces
Influence Three: Woodcraft and Recapitulation Theory
Influence Four: Children’s Literature
Changing Practices
References
Chapter 3: Scouting for Rituals: Fieldwork Research Within Youth Organisations
Participant Observation and Ritual
Data Collection Tools and Sources
The Researcher and Rites of Passage
The ‘Familiar’ Field, Positionality and the Past Self
Entering the Field: Accessing the Network
Different Organisations, Different Approaches
The 7th St. George’s Scout Group
Researcher Identity and Ritual
Identity and the Troop
Further Reflections
References
Chapter 4: Promising Transformation: The Scout and Guide Promise-Making as a Rite of Passage
The Promise
The Symbolic Promise
Preparing for the Promise
Tunnels, Ropes, Flags and Neckers: Performing Passage at Investiture
Outsiders to Insiders
Creating Members, Creating Family
Guiding Ritual
Members’ Ritual Experiences
References
Chapter 5: For Scouting, England and St. George? Modelling the ‘Good’ Scout
Chivalry and the Boy Scouts
Past and Present Performances
Parading on St. George’s Day
Parading Contested Symbols
Children’s Participation and Child-Oriented Celebrations
Interpreting St. George
Renewing the Promise
St. George Today
References
Chapter 6: Making a Modern May Queen: Guiding and the Gendering of Identity
‘She’s the One’
The Smithyhill May Queen
The May Queen Tradition in England
The May Queen and ‘Character’
Selecting the May Queen
Dressing the Queen
The May Queen Evening Performance, 2010
Passage and Emotion
References
Chapter 7: Burning the Birch Bark: Creating Identity Through Nature
The Investiture
Burning the Birch Bark
The Birch Bark Ritual Revisited
A Woodcraft Folk Naming Ceremony
Scouting and Woodcraft
Traditional Histories
References
Chapter 8: Camping Culture
Camping and Identity: A Short History
The ‘Sacred’ Campsite
The Camp as a Rite of Passage: Entering the Liminal Landscape
Initiatory Practices, Punishing and Pranking
Landscape and Learning
“Nature Is My X-Box”
The Campfire as an Identity-Constructing Performance
Boom-Chicka-Boom
Further Thoughts
References
Chapter 9: Brownies’ Stories: Storytelling, Legend and Locality as Markers of Group Membership
The Story of ‘The Brownies’
Brownies in Folklore
The Modern Brownie Story
Boggarts to Brownies
The Fairy Pool and Reflecting the Self
Ecclesfield Village
Walking the Story
Learning the Brownie Story
Being an Ecclesfield Brownie
References
Chapter 10: Conclusion
Becoming ‘good people’ Through the Promise
Rituals as Tools of Transformation and Identity Construction
Responsible Adults and Good Children
Coda: Looking to the Future of Ritual in Scouting and Guiding?
References
Index