Summary - Article: Betwixt And Between: The Liminal Period In Rites De Passage PDF

Preview

Summary

Article: Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage...

Description

Betwixt and Between by Turner  Rites of passage = “liminal period” o Maximal expression in small scale, stable, and cyclical societies o Includes transition between states  All rights of translation o Separation  Detatching individual from earlier fixed point o Margin  State of ritual subject is ambiguous  Structurally, if not physically, subject is invisible  Society’s secular definitions do not allow for not boy-notman o Aggregation  Consummated  Concern entry into a new achieved satus/membership  Ritual is transformative, ceremony is confirmatory  Since liminal people are not classified, symbosl that represent them are taken from symbols of death o Newly circumcised boys = menstruating women o Neophyte may be buried, stained black, or live with “undead” people o Or can be treated as embryos or newborn infants  Neither living nor dead o The transitional beings are polluting because they are neither one thing nor another  Neophytes said to be “in another place”  In societies dominantly structured by kinship institutions, sex distinctions have great structural importance o May be treated as androgynous o Also “have” nothing, no possessions  Sacred poverty  Between instructors and neophytes there is complete authority, equality, and submission o Neophytes all equal o Just like a fraternity  Exhibitions are sacred artifats that help you get through the initiation o Problems with the communication of these sacra  Frequent disproportion  Exaggerated feature made into an object of reflection  Product of hallucinations and dreams (uncertainty of liminal period)  Their monstrousness  Making them aware of the “factors” of their culture  Thought provoking  Most sacred things  Their mystery  Regarded as absoltutely sacrosanct



Black= key color, moon between phases, “hidden”

Section:  Endogamous vs. Exogamous o Totem vs. Caste  Totemism=religion  Kinship terms o Moiety= half  Society with two halves to it (clans) o Clan = common ancestor o Lineage = clan but known ancestor (not bear or eagle or whatever) o Hamlet= residential village  Edmund Leach  3 stages: o...