Arnold Van Gennep Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- History of Anthropology, Arts and Crafts, French colonial Algeria, Arnold Van Gennep

L’article se propose de définir les articulations entre les rites et la construction de l’identité dans l’œuvre de Joujou Turenne, conteuse, comédienne, danseuse et scénariste haïtienne, contrainte à l’exil au Québec dans les années 1970. Il s’agit d’observer comment les contes de Joujou Turenne se laissent interpréter comme textes ouverts où l’exil en diaspora québécoise peut être perçu comme un rite de passage vers une identité (post)moderne dont les repères sont sans cesse à réinventer. Dans la première partie, on interroge le parcours artistique de Joujou Turenne avec l’appui des théories de Arnold Van Gennep sur les rites de passage et des concepts de Victor Turner relatifs à l’anthropologie de la performance. La deuxième partie est consacrée à l’analyse de certains contes de Joujou Turenne afin d’y repérer des techniques nouvelles qu’elle développe au Québec pour adapter le conte haïtien traditionnel au contexte diasporique postmoderne.

- by Sara Del Rossi
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- Identity (Culture), Performance, Francophone Literature, Folklore (Literature)

This study explores accounts of the revenant, the walking dead in medieval Britain through the concept of a failure in the ritual process that surrounded death. This concept is used to explore the rituals leading to, surrounding, and following death, as well as the consequences of their perceived failure. The study of folklore and supernatural beliefs provides a unique insight into the perception of the failed ritual process of death and its consequences, as well as how the community dealt with them. Thus the nature of the revenant and the conditions that lead to its existence as a consequence of a ritual failure will be explored. It is identified as a stagnated presence, divorced from its ritual context, with no foreseeable end. The revenant threatens the community as a whole, be it through physical violence or contagion; it needs to be excised to protect the
community and its members.

- by Elif Boyacioglu
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- History, Folklore, Medieval History, Death

This paper focuses on the feedback between the social sciences and the arts as generated by Van Gennep’s ideas, and on the artistic and performative models following the attempt to bridge between artistic and social modes of performances and rituals. Focusing on the tripartite structure of Van Gennep's ritual scheme, I argue that its current reigning interpretations underestimate what “performance studies,” heightens: not the ritual and its outcome, but the passage—the durational process—delineates the affiliation of the individual to society and outlines the actions that enable the formation of a community. Thus, rather than focusing on liminality as the pivot of rites of passage, this paper addresses the agentive processuality of the passage between the three phases of the Van Gennep’s ritual model. I offer three central dimensions essential to performance studies, through which theatricality in Van Gennep’s Les Rites de Passage is re-examined: the incursion of the social fictional into the social sphere, the compulsive repetition, and the agency of the acting body as inextricable interrelated dimensions in the processual formation of a tightly-knit community through social rituals.

- by Ruthie Abeliovich
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- Cultural Studies, Performing Arts, Theatre Studies, Performance Studies

Adolescence and becoming an adult have been frequently analysed by the developmental psychology of life stages of the man. In descriptions of these life stages, psychological categories such as developmental crisis, identity transformation and initiation all intertwine.
In the text, I combine the psychological theories that describe adolescence with the theory of rites of passage according to Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.

- by Sylwia Jaskulska
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- Developmental Psychology, Development Studies, Ritual, Adolescent Development

This paper draws from an incident on a construction site when Xhosa workers organised a rite of passage for a fallen colleague. Probing into the history of the industrial, corporate workplace, an anthropological study of the 'Rites of Passage' shows how these ancient, culturally universal rites could work in the corporate workplace to provide employees with the symbolic tools needed to traverse the inevitable passages of human life: events of birth, marriage, death, accident, disease and death. Western corporate practices regarding life event management are held up to scrutiny and comparison with traditional indigenous methods of people management. Challenging Psychology's pre-eminence in making recommendations to companies as regarding employee management, anthropology here does the same with an hypothetical modification of the rites for the 21st century workplace.

- by Beverly C Jones
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- Anthropology, Workplace Management, Construction, Corporate Anthropology

It is not an easy task to understand the nature of carnival as it is shown by the many failures of the last century after Mikhail Bakhtin’s work became generally known. My book is an attempt to define carnival in relation to another entity that is always and necessarily associated with the carnival, still, easier to identify. The “Clown or Fool par excellence” embodies the carnival’s topsy-turvy attitude and transgresses all borders of reason and social order. Moreover, her repeated jumps to recover bear ritual laughter mocking the figure of Death. This is how the phenomenology of the clown par excellence and the carnival are ontologically related to each other. But, parallel to the strange fate of the clown “on stage” the carnival can become problematic as well. This is clearly visible in the Early Modern theatre of Shakespeare. The resentful exit of Malvolio leaves us confused in Twelfth Night. When the Fool disappears, others have to take on in the stormy night of King Lear. While the gravedigger and his friend, in Hamlet, are mockingly clowning, the grounds spits back a skull that already whispers: “God is dead.” This is how in Shakespeare’s plays the “decarnivalization of the world” is present on the Early Modern stage. I discuss and develop the concept of decarnivalization in order to reinterpret Shakespeare’s dramatic art.

- by Márton Bársony
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- Shakespeare, Bakhtin, Giorgio Agamben, Shakespearean Drama

Les premières années du vingtième siècle sont fertiles en moments, événements et publications qui, rétrospectivement, dénotent tous la recomposition en cours de la « science de l’homme », comme l’appelaient alors ses protagonistes. Une effervescence institutionnelle caractérise ce champ scientifique qui voit une autonomisation accrue de plusieurs disciplines marquant chacune leur territoire et leurs ambitions, parallèlement à un affaiblissement du magistère de l’anthropologie physique. Dans la division du travail scientifique, la pratique ethnographique gagne progressivement en légitimité. L’intensité des débats sur les origines et les formes des religions primitives bouscule la théologie catholique, en même temps qu’elle fait entendre une analyse savante et laïque des phénomènes religieux grâce à une attention grandissante accordée aux matériaux ethnographiques qui viennent nourrir la réflexion des historiens des religions, sociologues, philosophes, préhistoriens, anthropologues et linguistes.
S’il s’agit bien d’une histoire disciplinaire qui est ici esquissée, elle tente de dépasser ce strict découpage pour rappeler que l’anthropologie fut au croisement de nombreuses disciplines qui ont également contribué à son émergence et à sa reconnaissance. Par ses multiples coups de sonde dans ce champ scientifique très dynamique, 1913, la recomposition de la science de l’homme propose un état des lieux certes incomplet mais suggestif des tensions, des enjeux, des rapports de force, des dialogues, des pratiques scientifiques, qui le structurent et l’animent. Les différents auteurs rassemblés ici font le pari de la pertinence heuristique de l’approche situationnelle, contextuelle, institutionnelle, pour une histoire de l’anthropologie qui s’intéresserait tout à la fois aux idées, aux revues, aux institutions de savoir, aux réseaux de sociabilité savante, aux acteurs qui n’eurent pas tous l’heur d’être sacrés pères fondateurs de la discipline.
Cet ouvrage est le septième volume des Carnets de Bérose, une collection éditée électroniquement par le Lahic et le département du Pilotage de la recherche et de la politique scientifique de la Direction générale des patrimoines (ministère de la Culture).

- by Christine Laurière
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- History of Anthropology, Hertz Robert, Ethnographic Methods, Emile Durkheim

The mīs pî, lit. “washing of the mouth”, was one of the solemn rituals of Ancient Mesopotamia. Its goal was the induction of the cult statue in order to allow its official installation in the temple. For this purpose, a total iden- tity between the statue and its corresponding divinity was strictly required. The ontological union of two natures was obtained through four processions in four different ritual spaces: the workshop, the riverbank, the garden and the temple. This paper investigates the peculiarities of the mīs pî by paying particular attention to the ritual spaces. The aim is to analyze the “washing of the mouth” in terms of rite of passage, underlining the need to rethink van Gennep’s tripartite scheme.

- by Marinella Ceravolo
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- Liminality, Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Near East, Ritual Theory

Anthropology and Egyptology share the same interest in mortuary rituals. However, the higher-order interpretative framework developed by anthropology is not standardly applied by Egyptology. The present study focuses on summarizing a comparative framework of mortuary rituals and applying it to the study of bodily fluids in ancient Egypt. The bodily fluids under discussion—menstrual blood, milk, efflux of Osiris (rDw-fluids), and semen—have been chosen because of their specific connection to birth and rebirth in the ancient Egyptian symbolical system.

- by Martin Pehal and +1
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- Semiotics, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Comparative Religion, Egyptology

Depuis 2012, Lourdes a connu une baisse de fréquentation par les pèlerins. Mais cette baisse aurait pu être constatée depuis 10 ans. Quelles sont les causes d'une telle baisse et continuera-t-elle? Ce mémoire étudie l'évolution du modèle de pèlerinage par l'application du modèle de Van Gennep évolué par Turner et Turner. Ensuite sera étudié l'avenir de Lourdes, selon le diocèse et les politiques locaux.

- by Lauren Moore
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- Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage Routes, Liminality, Mariology
- by Elena Franchi
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- Liminality, Rites of Passage, Victor Turner, Ancient Sparta
- by Loig Le Sonn
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- Coaching and Personal Development, Self-help, Arnold Van Gennep, Masson-Oursel

Folktales have been a dynamic part of society, in the sense that social movements and political structures have found simultaneous representation in the contemporary folktales. This paper tries to read a specific aspect of Thakurma'r Jhuli, one of the most prominent texts of Bengali folklore written in pre-independent India: the aspect of travel as the frame narrative of many stories. Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar"s Thakurma'r Jhuli, in spite of being one of the most well-documented collection of Bengali folktales, has very little research space to suffice for the vast and dynamic tradition of folklore that forms the spine of Bengali literary context. Arnold van Gennep"s "Rites of Passage" and contemporary concepts of Grand Tour have been used to study this text from a post-colonial perspective, in order to identify this text within the contemporary research genres of tourism, pilgrimage and travel studies.

- by Kajori Patra
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- Mythology And Folklore, Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology
- by Nina Kreibig
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- Death Studies, Fear, History Of Emotions, Liminality

Seit dem sogenannten spatial turn hat die Reflexion unterschiedlicher Raumkonzepte in den Kulturwissenschaften Hochkonjunktur. Dabei wird immer wieder auf einen Aspekt verwiesen, der gleichwohl merkwürdig randständig bleibt: der Zwischenraum als materielle oder imaginäre Grenze. Sei es die häusliche Schwelle (Bachelard) oder der Schwellenritus (van Gennep), der postkoloniale in-between-space (Bhabha), die paratextuelle zone intermediaire (Genette) oder eine assoziative Ikonologie des Zwischenraums (Warburg). All diese Aspekte verweisen auf ein besonderes Feld von Praktiken im Raum, die in einem 'Zwischenbereich' stattfinden, nämlich die Bewegungen im Zwischenraum.

- by Uwe Wirth
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- Critical Theory, Hybridity, Walter Benjamin, Theory of Space

Qu’on les traverse, qu’on les construise, qu’on cherche à les protéger, il existe tout un ensemble de pratiques rituelles spécifiques aux portes que les différentes contributions du recueil vont aborder. Il offre donc diverses réflexions tant sur les génies des portes que sur les rites de passage qu’on traite des portes urbaines, des portes de temples ou des portes de tombes.

- by Patrick Michel
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- Anatolian Studies, Ritual, Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Near East
- by Felix Abrudan
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- Sociology, Collective Behavior, Anthropology, Sociology of Work
- by Mark Beumer
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- Religion, Anthropology, Structure, Ritual

Food plays a central role in hospitality in virtually every culture on earth. Eating together— “commensality” is perhaps one of the most basic human social acts, and is imbued with a special ritual quality. In this paper I show that there are several stages that participants in commensality pass through from the outside world to the communal meal. The passage from stage to stage is effected through the use of linguistic/behavioral routines that I call “pragmemic triggers.” The form of these triggers is different for different societies, but their structure and use is the same. To demonstrate this, I compare the passage to the meal in four widely dispersed cultures: Middle East, Japanese, German and American.

- by William O Beeman
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- Discourse Analysis, Languages and Linguistics, Pragmatics, Anthropology of Food

Qui était vraiment Arnold Van Gennep, l'auteur des Rites de passage ? Père fondateur de l'ethnographie française, il oeuvra d'abord dans le champ de l'anthropologie "exotique" et religieuse, s'inscrivant dans les grands débats internationaux de son temps.
Pourtant, ses travaux, esquissant une définition de la sociologie et de l'ethnographie nourrie d'une conception politique du monde, furent ostracisés de l'école sociologique française dans les années 1910.
Cette biographie collective explore la riche personnalité de Van Gennep dans le contexte anthropologie française de la première moitié du XXe siècle. Pour rendre raison de son parcours scientifique, les auteurs mettent en évidence les rapports de force disciplinaires, théoriques, idéologiques, institutionnels et personnels dans lesquels il évolua, dessinant dans le même temps une épistémologie de l'ethnologie française.

- by Abdullah A Yateem
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- History of Anthropology, Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Durkheim

This study strives to show the culturally reflexive properties of mythological narratives by describing the dynamism stemming from the simultaneous inclusion of various types of temporality and specific usage of space. The basic premise is that any symbolic system/culture contains antithetical principles which are nevertheless upheld simultaneously (in case of ancient Egypt exemplified by the " positional succession " phenomenon). These cultural paradoxes are both a source of discomfort to the system (as they show its incongruence and thus contingency), but also a source of alternative symbolical layout and thus of great power (because they transcend the given social structures). Certain phenomena, myth being one of them, enable to both cope with these paradoxes and utilise their transformative potential. To exemplify how exactly such a process occurs, I provide an analysis of the papyrus d'Orbiney, also known as the Tale of Two Brothers, subsequently identifying it as a " ring-composition ". Consequences of such an identification in relation to the reflexive quality of mythological narratives are then discussed.

- by Martin Pehal
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptology, Reflexivity, Narratology
- by Róża Boczkowska
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- Sigmund Freud, Liminality, Vedanta and Nondualism, Victor Turner
- by Mark Beumer
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- Liminality, Ancient Medicine, Asclepius, Book Reviews
- by Christian Grosse
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- Historical Anthropology, Early Modern History, History of Religion, Ritual

C’est sur un terrain colonial, l’Algérie, que François Pouillon suit Van Gennep, en invitant le lecteur à parcourir avec lui ses articles, chroniques et son fascinant ouvrage En Algérie, véritable « deuxième livre de l’ethnographe » permettant de documenter l’atmosphère du terrain d’enquête tamisé par le regard d’un ethnologue original qui, pour ne pas s’inscrire dans le courant théorique ouvert par Durkheim, développe une pratique d’enquête exigeante et probe, dans des textes précis et néanmoins empreints d’humour, et une forme de réflexivité tout à fait novatrice dans le contexte des années 1910. De façon convaincante, François Pouillon démontre que cette expérience algérienne constitue bien un tournant dans l’itinéraire de Van Gennep et va l’inciter à se replier sur le domaine français, pour des raisons propres aux spécificités de l’enquête ethnographique en terre musulmane. Sa lecture autobiographique du texte à clés Les Demi-Savants, écrit à la même période, éclaire plusieurs traits de caractère singuliers de Van Gennep. (Extrait de l’introduction)

- by François POUILLON
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- Ethnography, Algeria, Arnold Van Gennep, history of French anthropology

The text is part of a debate on the possibility of studying the school through the prism of the anthropological category of "rite". By referring myself to Arnold van Gennep and Victor W. Turner's theory of "rites of passage", I pose a question on the possibility of analysing the current social reality as a series of rites of passage. I touch upon the issue of the universal character of the traditional approach to the "rite of passage" category. I inquire into how much it matches the issues currently formulated in pedagogical research.

- by Sylwia Jaskulska
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- Educational Research, Ritual, Anthropology of Education, Rites of Passage
- by Emmanuel Delille
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- History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies

- by Martin Pehal
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Art

Ho messo alla prova – in un pronto soccorso di un ospedale italiano, pensato ed esperito in prima persona come contesto d’uso specifico e in situazione, sotto forma di gioco linguistico (Wittgenstein) – la nozione di passaggio di Van Gennep e la nozione d’istituzione di Bourdieu. Ho fatto riferimento a entrambi autori coniugando in modo complementare le due diverse prospettive, aprendo inoltre alla riflessione su un terzo elemento, trascurato dai due autori: i riti di socializzazione, necessaria forma di intermediazione tra il ‘passaggio’ del soggetto e ‘la regolazione’ prodotta dall’istituzione. Mi sono interrogato, nel corso della mia visita d’urgenza al pronto soccorso, sul significato attivo dell’attesa intesa, più che come un non-fare o elemento di totale sospensione dell’azione, come intersezione di micro-attività ritualizzate d’ordine cognitivo ed emotivo, performativo e causativo (Barthes, Rosaldo). Ho parlato, infine, di una politica e poetica dell’attesa (e del suo significato), in chiave più postmodernista, al fine di mettere in risalto l’impegno politico-poetico soggiacente l’attività di un antropologo in un qualsiasi momento di vita quotidiana: un impegno che viene messo in opera, soprattutto da parte mia, attraverso esplorazioni semio-antropologiche di quelle sedimentazioni intersoggettive in atto che conducono alla rivelazione di dispositivi impliciti di inculcazione del potere e di trasmissione mediatizzata del sapere.

- by stefano montes
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- Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Wittgenstein, Waiting

Dans ce contexte de la pandémie du Covid 19, j'ai été heurté par le sentiment que l'impréparation politique de cette crise sanitaire a conduit en France au sacrifice d'une partie de la population de nos aînés en EHPAD (sorte de CHSLD privé) et de soignants envoyés prendre en charge les personnes atteintes de ce virus sans équipement adéquat. J'ai aussi constaté avec tristesse, y compris dans l'accompagnement à distance d'amis ayant eu le Covid et d'amis endeuillés, les ravages d e la domination d'un discours scientiste dans sa prétention méthodologique à une forme de vérité, prétention universalisante exercée au détriment de la santé de tous et du droit des médecins d'exercer leur art avec discernement dans le respect de la liberté de conscience des patients. Je ne m'étendrai pas davantage sur les avanies d'un système sociétal qui préfère utiliser des idéologies soi-disant objectives marchandisant l'être humain ou le réduisant à sa dimension biologique dans un fantasme de maîtrise, voire de toute puissance, plutôt que de prendre acte de ce qui favorise sa vie sur la terre, car les sciences économiques et médicales ne sont pas mon domaine d'expertise. Par contre, je propose de réfléchir brièvement ci-après en termes anthropologiques inspirés de Van Gennep la crise que nous traversons, surtout afin de rappeler que les sciences ne se limitent pas à des disciplines ancrées dans la recherche quantitative, chiffrée, objectivante, lesquelles peuvent nous tuer par le manque de sens qu'elles offrent ou leur détournement à des fins politiques. Cette courte réflexion ne se veut toutefois pas un article scientifique, l'usage de Van Gennep étant lui-même assez décontextualisé de ses rigoureuses préoccupations ethnographiques, mais plutôt une sorte de lettre ouverte invitant à repenser notre société en s'éloignant des idéologies gestionnaires et utilitaristes qui l'ont déterminée à mort pour retrouver des priorités humaines à ce qui lui donne sens.

- by David Breme
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- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Arnold Van Gennep, Covid-19

About the Hajj's Rituals and how to do it (the rules, the provisions and the history), numerous articles have been published. But about analyzing of it with Performative approach, there hasn't been intensive research yet. This study has endeavored to doing a Comparative analysis between the "liminality" - a concept of Victor Turner's and Arnold Van Gennep's perspective in The Rites of Passage (1909): In which that people passing through it (as a step) and during a special ritual, to arrive at important points in the life and their growth. - and "Theater expedition" or "Expedition Theater " - a new kind of theater; a form of theater that is to do it during a trip (travel), a time (or period) and a place (three points: a beginning, middle, end). And in the other words, a new form of planned trips (only in form, not In short performed and how it's done by the participants) that in the continuous flow and, as scrolling to find songs, rituals, stories and other aspects of a ecology, are in the place.- To achieve this goal, In the first step define the key concepts of current study- liminality, Expedition Theater and Hajj's Rituals (the purpose of this concept in this article, is a series of acts that a Muslim person does, Based on a religious duty and if he or she has enough power to reach the house of God in Mecca city.) – then, with a focus on Turner's proposed pattern of triple Features of Ritual- imperatively, structured and religious belief- the structure of Hajj-as a ritual-, will be examined and analyzed by Performing view. Also by Categories and study of Conditions and requirements that Leading to create the liminality, and achieve to obtaining four indicators-personal, mental, advertising and Critical- as methods of Liminality's influencing, both patterns are compared with each other. The outcome and the final achievement confirmed that Research hypothesis based on Compliance with or similarity and alignment between theory (Turner's votes - pattern of Expedition theater) and text (Hajj's Rituals) In two directions: the similarity and alignment and Reject the hypothesis in direction Adaptive. Also, the outcome of phenomenological model of Theater expedition and Hajj's Rituals, In the structural level (performative) were matched and in the content level (motivation and goal setting) has been dissimilar and disparate. Expected outcomes of this research will be a small step toward more recognition of ritual and an expression of Iranian religion and culture, the concept of liminality (In the applicable index analysis of dramatic formations) And finally, the Expedition Theater as a form of the new Specie of Performing Art's. And also hope, that this study and the results and how to do it, is the beginning of the comparative studies in interdisciplinary studies, drama, theater, religion and culture and beliefs of people in geographically various areas, to promote anthropological studies in the field of theater and other performing arts dependent on local characteristics and place in an area and finally, to get closer more various religious beliefs and rituals.

- by ali rooyin
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- Theatre Studies, Liminality, Ritual Theory, Victor Turner

ÖZ
İnsan topluluklarının en temel kültürel örüntülerinden olan ritüeller, kültürün araştırılmasında en çok başvurulan unsurlardandır. Arnold Van Gennep’in “geçiş ritüelleri” kuramı ve bu kuramın üzerine inşa edilmiş olan Victor Turner’a ait “eşiksellik” kuramı ise, sosyal bilimlerin ritüel çalışmalarının en temel kuramlarıdır. Bu kuramlara göre, hayatın çeşitli aşamalarında ve mecralarında “geçiş ritüelleri” bulunmaktadır ve bu ritüeller üç aşamaya ayrılmış şekilde seyretmektedir. Bu aşamaların ikincisi olan “eşiksel” aşama, bireylerin ne ilk ne de son aşamada olduğu bir ‘aradalık’ hali ile karakterize olmuştur. Kuramsal tarihi boyunca ritüeller ile benzeştirilmiş, hatta ritüellerin içerisinden doğup salt sanatsal kimliğini kazandığı öne sürülmüş olan sahne sanatları temsilleri, bu çalışmada, ritüellerle olan benzerliğinin değerlendirilmesi amacıyla iki temel ritüel kuramı olan “geçiş ritüelleri” ile “eşiksellik” bağlamında ele alınmıştır. Araştırmada, öncelikle, detaylı bir literatür taraması gerçekleştirilmiş ve kuramsal çerçeve oluşturulmuştur. Daha sonra, oluşturulan kuramsal çerçeve ışığında, sahne sanatları temsillerinin gözlemlendiği ve sahne sanatları çevresi ile birebir görüşmelerin gerçekleştirildiği bir alan araştırması yürütülmüştür. Araştırmanın sonucunda, yüzyıllardır ritüeller ile bir arada ele alınmış olan sahne sanatları temsillerinin hem “geçiş ritüellerinin” üç basamaklı yapısı hem de Victor Turner’ın ikinci aşama üzerine inşa ettiği “eşiksel” evrenin özellikleri ile uyum içerisinde olduğu ve bu kuramlar bağlamında yapılan değerlendirmenin sahne sanatları temsillerinin ritüellerle benzeştiği fikrini pekiştirdiği sonucuna varılmıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Sahne Sanatları, Eşiksellik, Geçiş Ritüelleri
ABSTRACT
Rituals are one of the most studied concepts in the research of culture. Arnold Van Gennep’s theory “rites of passage” and Victor Turner’s theory “liminality” are together the most basic theories of ritual studies. According to these theories, there are “transition rituals” at various stages and in various channels of life and these rituals are divided into three stages. The second stage is called “liminality” and is characterized by an ‘in-betweenness’ in which individuals are neither in the first nor at the last stage. In this study, the field of performing arts, which has always been viewed in terms of rituals and, indeed, is said to be born out of them having gained its purely artistic identity later on, is examined in the context of the “rites of passage” and “liminality” theories, in order to evaluate its similarity with the rituals. After a detailed literature review, this study builds a conceptual and theoretical framework for the research. Having done that, we then explain how we conducted our field research which involved participant observation and face-to-face interviews, all in the light of the afore-mentioned framework. The results of the study conclude that performing arts, which have been considered together with rituals since their theoretical beginning, share the principles of the three staged “transition rituals” and the characteristics of the “liminal” stage coined by Victor Turner. The study also concludes that the theoretical framework supports the idea that performing arts are similar to rituals.
Keywords: Performing Arts, Liminality, Rites of Passage

In this article I analyze Van Gennep’s understanding of purity, impurity, and purification and its relationship with ancient Christian texts discussing these subjects. Through this comparison, I show how modern and ancient theories of ritual can illuminate each other, and more specifically, how purification was a problematic and ambivalent concept for both ancient Christian writers and for Van Gennep, making it a fruitful one for investigating the thought of both.

- by Moshe Blidstein
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- Early Christianity, Baptism, Rites of Passage, Clement of Alexandria

The Pyramid Texts convey the deceased king, or queen, into the afterlife via numerous paths that provide forward and upward momentum. Within the texts, geographical locations and spatial language proliferate, and it is through this landscape that the paths to the afterlife are woven, traversing both implicit and explicit references to liminal barriers, and thresholds, which may prevent the deceased, and other beings, from progressing through space. Boundaries can manifest as territorial lines that separate physical regions, as conceptual barriers that divide people via their class, race, gender, or
religion, or as temporal and liminal boundaries that separate based on astronomical phases or the passages of life and death. The Egyptians conceptualised their boundaries both symbolically and geopolitically, and these boundaries are tied to intrinsic societal and cultural ideas that frequently intersect with notions of inclusion and exclusion. This paper will briefly introduce an interdisciplinary approach to the discussion of space in the Pyramid Texts, with the aim of situating the conceptualisation of boundaries within the wider theoretical framework of liminality championed by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.

- by Anna Chilcott
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptology, Symbolic Boundaries, Liminality
- by Elena Franchi
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- Sigmund Freud, Bronislav Malinowski, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Oedipus

This article revisits Arnold Van Gennep’s Rites de passage from the point of view of gift theory. Gifts emerge as quasi-omnipresent and in association with all sorts as well as all phases of rites of passage in Van Gennep’s text. However, he never explicitly addresses nor problematizes this pervasive connection between gifts and rites of passage. In contrast with Marcel Mauss’s later Essai sur le don, moreover, Rites de passage tends to relate to gift-exchange in either mere instrumental, economic terms, or as a rather simple and efficient, binding and “unifying” mechanism, while displaying none of Mauss’s complementary attentiveness to the agonistic as well as more complex and contradictory features of gift processes. Yet, precisely the ideas of margin and liminality for which Van Gennep’s became best known, but which did not seep at all into his own treatment of gifts, may be drawn upon to approach gift interactions as ritual processes, perhaps even rites of passage, with liminal ...