f the
name among wild and semi-civilised peoples, Frazer,
_G.B._ i. 403 foll.; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 430
foll. All these ceremonies of birth, naming, and
initiation (puberty) have recently been included by M.
van Gennep in what he calls _Rites de passage_ (see his
book with that title, which appeared after these
lectures were prepared, especially chapters v. and vi.).
In all these ceremonies he traces more or less
successfully a sequence of rites of separation (_i.e._
from a previous condition), of margin, where the ground
is, so to speak, neutral, and of "aggregation," when the
subject is introduced to a new state or condition of
existence. If I understand him rightly, he looks on this
as the proper and primitive explanation of all such
rites, and denies that they need to be accounted for
animistically, _i.e._ by assuming that riddance of evil
spirits, or purification of any kind, is the leading
idea in them. They are, in fact, quasi-dramatic
celebrations of a process of going over from one status
to another, and may be found in connection with all the
experiences of man in a social state. But the Roman
society, of which I am describing the religious aspect,
had beyond doubt reached the animistic stage of thought,
and was in process of developing it into the theological
stage; hence these ceremonies are marked by sacrifices,
as marriage, the _dies lustricus_ (see De Marchi, p.
169, and Tertull. _de Idol._ 16) most probably, and
puberty (_R.F._ p. 56). I do not fully understand how
far van Gennep considers sacrifice as marking a later
stage in the development of the ideas of a society on
these matters (see his note in criticism of Oldenburg,
p. 78); but I see no good reason to abandon the words
purification and lustration, believing that even if he
is right in his explanation of the original
performances, these ideas had been in course of time
engrafted on them.

[181] In historical times the _toga pura_ was assumed
when the parents thought fit; earlier there may have
been a fixed day (_R.F._ p. 56, "Liberalia"). In any
case there was, of course, no necessary correspondence
between "social and physical puberty"; van Gennep, p. 93
foll.

[182] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 191; J. B. Carter in Hastings'
_Dict. of Religion and Ethics_, i. 46