ABSTRACT
The shape of a status passage is determined by combining its direction and temporality. One basic way of controlling the shape of a status passage is to prescribe its direction and schedule. The most extreme resource is for a passagee actually to destroy the passage because he lacks ability to exert a more moderate control over it. The efforts and resources of passagees in weak positions of power vis-a-vis control agents give rise to problems of lack of cooperation, recalcitrance, misrepresentation of actions and history, withdrawal, guises to conceal true actions, and destructiveness. The balance of control shifts intermittently as each party resorts to both institutionalized and informal means for influencing the shape of the passage. The passagee controls the awareness context concerning the passage. The passagee must resort to other leverage, and be subtle—using slow downs, delays, threats of quitting—when he wishes to affect the shape of the passage.
