ROLE TRANSITIONS, OBJECTS, AND IDENTITY

Most research on role transitions, following a tradition pioneered by van Gennep, regards these major turning points in the life course prim arily as times when people move between different sets of social netwo rks. While these studies acknowledge that rites of passage occur withi n particular physical spaces in which material objects are present, th e importance of such objects has received little attention. I explore one particular role transition-moving away to college-and illustrate t hat objects play a central role in how students construct their identi ties. Students at ''Midwestern'' University make strategic choices abo ut which objects to leave at home as anchors of prior identities and w hich ones to bring to school as markers of new identities. Moreover, I suggest that the meanings of these two categories of objects differ b y gender. I argue that this case opens vp the possibility that objects play a much more central part in role transitions than social scienti sts have acknowledged. This study also challenges existing assumptions about different processes of identity formation. Therefore, it engend ers the need for additional research about how people reinterpret obje cts during role transitions, and about the different meanings that obj ects may have for the constructions of masculinity and femininity.