Victor Turner (jan 1, 1920 – jan 1, 1981)

Description:

About:
-British, PhD at U of Manchester, UChicago, and UVirginia
-conducted long-term fieldwork in Zambia among the Ndembu
-known symbolically for "symbolic anthropology" work in ritual, symbols, and social processes
-influenced by: Arnold Van Gennep, Émile Durkheim

Major Works:
-The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (1967)
-The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969)
-Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (1974)
-From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play (1982)

Major Concepts:
-Symbols & ritual
→ multivocal--different meanings in different contexts
→ act as the ritual "social glue" of societies
-Liminality & communitas
→ "liminality"--transitional phase "betwixt and between" normal individual social roles or identities
→ "communitas"--unstructured community bond that comes out of liminal experience
+ "anti-structure" opposed to "structure"
-Social drama
→ regular daily social conflicts take ritualistic form:
→ Breach: a violation of social norms or values
→ Crisis: the community becomes aware of the breach, leading to division or conflict
→ Redressive action: attempts are made to resolve the crisis, often through rituals, ceremonies, or legal actions
→ reintegration or schism: the crisis is resolved, either by reintegrating the parties into society or through a permanent division
-society structures by shared meaning rather than for functional reasons

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