Scottish cultural anthropologist best known for his work on ritual symbols, rites of passage and the concept of liminality, which he developed from Arnold van Gennep's earlier model through long fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia to describe the ambiguous, "betwixt and between" middle stage of a ritual transition; he later extended the idea toward the secular "liminoid" phenomena of complex societies, an extension since debated for how far the original concept should stretch. 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 account Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own accountCharlottesville, Virginia, United States 1 Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountExtended van Gennep's rites-of-passage model through long-term fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia, developing liminality and communitas to describe the transitional, structure-dissolving middle phase of ritual, and later extending the idea toward the secular "liminoid" phenomena of complex modern societies, an extension some scholars argue overstretches a model built for small-scale ritual. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountThe Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969) 1 Victor Turner
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FAQs
Did Victor Turner invent the concept of liminality?
No. Van Gennep identified the threshold stage in 1909, and Turner's 1964 article established liminality as the name for it.
No. The idea of a threshold stage in rites of passage comes from Arnold van Gennep, who described three stages in 1909: separation, a middle stage he called the limen, and reaggregation. For about forty years afterward that middle stage was rarely examined. Turner took part in the rites of the Lunda-Ndembu of Zambia between 1951 and 1954, and in 1964 he wrote the article Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage, which established liminality as the name for the middle phase. His later work then opened up a broad view of liminality in many other settings.
Connections
Associated With
Source Wikipedia: Victor Turner
Practices Studied
Source Wikipedia: Victor Turner
Source Wikipedia: Victor Turner
Theories Developed
Victor Turner coined communitas to describe the unstructured, egalitarian bond that forms among participants during the liminal phase of a ritual, contrasting it with ordinary structured social relations.
Source Wikipedia: Liminality
Victor Turner extended van Gennep rites-of-passage framework, developing its liminal, transitional middle phase into his own influential theory of liminality and communitas.
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Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Source Wikipedia: Victor TurnerLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 3Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 – 18 December 1983) was a Scottish cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Victor Turner
WikipediaIntroduction, description
Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 - 18 December 1983) was a Scottish cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage.
Introduction, birth date
Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 - 18 December 1983) was a Scottish cultural anthropologist.
Infobox, birthplace
Glasgow, Scotland
Infobox, place of death
Charlottesville, Virginia
Liminality section, defining contribution
In liminality, the transitional state between two phases, individuals were "betwixt and between": they did not belong to the society that they previously were a part of and they were not yet reincorporated into that society.
Bibliography, notable work
His major publications include The Forest of Symbols (1967) and The Ritual Process (1969).
Practices Studied: Ritual, Article text
As a professor at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s, Turner began to apply his study of rituals and rites of passage to world religions and the lives of religious heroes.
Practices Studied: Religion, Article text
As a professor at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s, Turner began to apply his study of rituals and rites of passage to world religions and the lives of religious heroes.
Associated With: University of Chicago, Article text
As a professor at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s, Turner began to apply his study of rituals and rites of passage to world religions and the lives of religious heroes.
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