Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) was a French ethnographer and folklorist, born in Germany to a Dutch father and French mother, who is best remembered for coining the phrase 'rites of passage' in his 1909 book Les rites de passage. He identified a recurring tripartite structure in rituals that mark a person's movement from one social status or life stage to another, made up of separation, transition, and incorporation, and he introduced the concept of 'liminality' to describe the ambiguous, threshold-like middle phase. Unlike many of his contemporaries, van Gennep worked largely outside the university system, and he is also considered the founder of folklore studies in France. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own accountLudwigsburg, Kingdom of Württemberg (Germany) 1 Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own accountFrench (German-born, of Dutch and French parentage) 1 Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountHe was the first to identify the recurring three-part structure (separation, transition, incorporation) underlying rituals that mark transitions between life stages, coining the terms 'rites of passage' and 'liminality.' 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountLes rites de passage (The Rites of Passage, 1909); Le Manuel de folklore français contemporain (1937-1958) 1 Arnold van Gennep
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FAQs
Why did Arnold van Gennep call the middle stage of a rite of passage the limen?
He took limen, the Latin word for threshold, because the rites he studied showed much door symbolism.
Van Gennep took the word limen from the Latin for threshold. His research showed a great deal of door symbolism in the rites, with participants often entering the new ritual life over a threshold or entryway. He found that, as a general rule, the rites had three stages, which he named separation, margin or limen, and reaggregation.
Connections
Practices Studied
Source Wikipedia: Rite of Passage
Source Wikipedia: Scarification
Theories Developed
Source Wikipedia: Liminality
Arnold van Gennep coined and defined rites of passage in his 1909 study of the same name, identifying the tripartite separation-liminality-incorporation structure common to life-stage rituals.
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Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Arnold van Gennep
Wikipedia- lead section and Rites of Passage section
- infobox
- infobox and biography
- Works section
- name as given in infobox
- Rites of Passage section: three phases "préliminaire...liminaire...postliminaire"
View the Source Wikidata: Arnold van Gennep
Wikidata Q385288, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source Wikipedia: Rite of Passage
WikipediaPractices Studied: Rite of Passage, opening section, citing Les rites de passage (1909)View the Source Wikipedia: Scarification
WikipediaPractices Studied: Scarification, Article body sentence quotedQuote, Practices Studied: Scarification, Article body sentence quoted
In 1909, Van Gennep described bodily transformations, including tattooing, scarification, and painting, as rites of passage.
Encyclopedia.com: Arnold Van Gennep
Encyclopedia.comIn Group: French Anthropologists and Ethnologists, Opening sentenceQuote, In Group: French Anthropologists and Ethnologists, Opening sentence
French anthropologist, was born in Ludwigsburg, Germany, his father a descendant of French emigrants.
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