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From Fat to Thin: Informal Rites Affirming Identity Change
Author(s) -
Rubin Nissan,
Shmilovitz Carmella,
Weiss Meira
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1993.16.1.1
Subject(s) - identity (music) , state (computer science) , personal identity , social identity theory , sociology , social life , social psychology , order (exchange) , social change , aesthetics , history , psychology , social group , anthropology , law , political science , self concept , art , finance , algorithm , computer science , economics
Rituals provide public solutions to some types of life crises, or change. There are crises which beset the individual in modern society which are not easily addressed by public ritual. The present paper observes such a life crisis and identifies conscious rites performed by individuals. These rites are called, “personal definitional rites”, and take place in situations demanding identity changes. Newly acquired identity is performed ritually in an attempt to elicit recognition of a new social state. Thirty‐six patients clinically defined as obese underwent gastric reduction surgery. Patients were interviewed after having lost excess weight in order to understand the social results of the dramatic change in appearance. Patients described various “rites” they used to complete their conversion from fat to thin. These rites are compared to rites of transition and definition.