ABSTRACT
Life-cycle rituals are key points at which culture and social structure interrelate with the biological growth and decay of human bodies. Life-cycle rituals are of critical importance for understanding the ways a modern industrial society relates, or fails to relate, to the human body. In simpler, less industrial societies, there are often rituals which aid in the process of identification with sexual roles, and many of these have been studied and analysed by anthropologists and some psychologists. The ritual celebration of the masculine ‘fighter’ hero-figure occurs in numerous films, tv serials, ‘Welcome Homes’ of soldiers, boxing, and some pop songs. Every human society has some ritual surrounding transitions of social position connected with the human biological life cycle. In modern industrial society, many of the rituals associated with the life cycle are based on the social relations of the family and kinship groups involved.
