Victor Turner Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by Mark Beumer
- •
- Social Change, Ritual, Ritual Theory, Interaction Ritual Theory

Taking the example of the Basel carnival Fasnacht, the paper shows in what way ritual can maintain the impression of being traditional and unchan-ging, and yet be open to changes and innovations. As the basic conceptual framework we use the notion of liminality, which Victor Turner identified as the creative moment of ritual. In Fasnacht, this liminal dimension appears in two degrees. The carnival as such represents a reflexive liminal counterpart to the standard social structure, yet it is itself also highly structured and bound by conservative traditional rules. As a reaction to this, there arises within Fasnacht a second-order liminality in the form of the so-called wild Fasnacht, which turns the official anti-structural Fasnacht rules upside down once again, testing their validity. While the carnival structure offers a regulated opportunity for questioning everyday social behaviour, wild Fasnacht questions even this regulated manner of questioning as such, opening space for its reflection and modification. We use detailed examples to demonstrate how the subtle dialectics of structure and antistructure keeps the tradition of Basel's Fasnacht alive and allows it to evolve without destroying its aura of traditionality.

- by Olga Věra Cieslarová
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- Ritual Theory, Victor Turner, Carnival, Basel

Surf tourism is a largely ignored mode of touristic behavior in the academy. This investigation adds to a very limited body of work by providing explorations of the significance of surf tourism for surfers and by bringing forward data and observations of the impacts surf tourism has had on Playas Jacó and Hermosa, Costa Rica. Interviews with twenty-five surf tourists, seven local business owners and a co-director of the local Chamber of Commerce were obtained. Interview, statistical, and observation data were then used to argue that: a surfer habitus creates dispositions for many surfers to travel to exotic coastal destinations on the periphery; surf trips to Costa Rica in many ways are experientially similar to pilgrimages; and that surf tourism can be seen to be directly and indirectly associated with many economic, environmental, and socio-cultural costs and benefits to the local communities under study.
In order to approach the theoretical considerations of the study, insights are drawn from theories associated with the ritualistic processes of rites of transition that were first brought forward by Arnold van Gennep and later refined by Victor and Edith Turner. In this way, the study supports Nelson H.H. Graburn’s contention that tourism in general is a sacred journey through an analysis of the experiential attributes of surf tourism in particular. Considering the applied dimension of surf tourism in Playas Jacó and Hermosa, it is argued that, as pathfinders into territories that lack an existent tourism infrastructure, surfers may indirectly set in motion a process of development and foreign investment into areas that are ill-prepared for large numbers of visitors. Richard Butler’s formulation of a Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) is shown to be a useful model with which to examine this process of development and the possible difficulties that may come about without proper planning and regulation. Observations of the direct impact of surf tourists on the area’s economy, environment, and society are also brought forward to argue that this mode of tourism is in many ways distinct from most other forms of leisure travel.

- by Stefan M Krause
- •
- Anthropology of Tourism, Applied Anthropology, Costa Rica, Victor Turner

The cultural and ritual performance of Theyyam in Northern Kerala, considered as a reflection of the war cry against the caste system and oppression, conducts subversion of the social hierarchy. The chosen deity by the performer for a transitory symbolisation expresses the collective outrage of the oppressed and exploited people. This research paper enquires about the anti-structural characteristics exhibited by the performance of Theyyam. In the context of Richard Schechner’s performance theory, it attempts to trace the characterisation of Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, Victor Turner’s liminality and social drama in the transitional performance of Theyyam that mostly relies on interim separation and reintegration. The expression of antipathy to the hierarchy in Bakhtinian carnival, the anti-structural emphasis in Turnarian liminality, and the deconstructive-reconstructive stages in social drama elucidate the symbolic delineation of the performance of Theyyam. The analytical findi...

- by Raisun Mathew
- •
- Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Literature, Liminality

Resumo: Essa pesquisa foi desenvolvida em uma casa de show noturna em Porto Alegre/RS. O objetivo foi analisar a dimensão identitária de gênero, articulada com as performances dos/as artistas drags que se apresentam nesse espaço. Inspirados nos recursos etnográficos, utilizamos a observação participante como caminho metodológico e o caderno de campo como principal instrumento. Partimos do referencial teórico dos Estudos de Gênero e utilizamos conceitos de Victor Turner e Pierre Bourdieu. Os resultados demonstraram que os modos de ser/estar drag visibilizam uma perfomance estética relacionada aos estilos de vida minoritários, reivindicando reconhecimento social para signos que redefinem os limites simbólicos de pertencimento de gênero, por meio da produção de um habitus drag e de um projeto de vida, relacionados às estratégias de sobrevivência em uma sociedade com normas compulsórias de gênero. E, também, que a emergência do Reality Show RuPaul Drag Race proporcionou, por um lado, uma maior aceitação das Drag Queens por um público que antes não as aceitava, mas, por outro, mudanças de posicionamento político com relação aos usos dessa estética, evidenciadas pela permanência dos preconceitos com os Travestis. Palavras-chave: Drag queen. Gênero. Performance. "TO STAY IN DRAG IS A MANIFEST": DRAG QUEEN PERFORMANCE AND GENDER AS AN IDENTITORY POSITION Abstract: This research was developed in the state of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. The objective was to analyze the gender identity dimension, articulated with the performances of the drag artists who perform in a nightclub. Inspired by ethnographic resources, we used participant observation as the methodological path and field notebook as the main instrument. We started from the theoretical framework of Gender Studies and used concepts from Victor Turner and Pierre Bourdieu. The results demonstrated that the ways staying in drag make visible an aesthetic performance related to minority lifestyles, demanding social recognition for signs that redefine the symbolic limits of gender belonging through the production of a habitus drag and of a project of life related to survival strategies in a society with compulsory gender norms. And also, that the emergence of the RuPaul Drag Race Reality Show has led, on the one hand, to greater acceptance of the Drag Queens by an audience that previously did not accept them, but, on the other hand, changes in political stance regarding the uses of this aesthetic evidenced by the persistence of prejudices with the Transvestites. Considerações iniciais "Comecei a me montar em uma festa de amigos onde todos foram vestidos de mulher. Um amigo falou que eu tinha "levado jeito" e fui convidada para fazer um aniversário depois da festa; e depois outro aniversário; e depois um show em um bar; e quando vi minha Drag estava lá, tomando forma. Foi assim que ela nasceu, sem planejamento, por um descuido. Um ótimo descuido" (DRAG L. B.). Neste artigo apresentamos dados de uma pesquisa realizada na cidade de Porto Alegre, situada no Rio Grande do Sul, em um bar noturno chamado Workroom,

- by Giuliano Souza Andreoli and +1
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- Anthropology Of Dance, Gender and Sexuality, Performance, Estudios de Género
- by Fabrizio Deriu
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- Performing Arts, Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Liminality
- by Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel
- •
- Gender Studies, Sexuality, Kabbalah, Victor Turner

Global Tribe explores the visionary arts dance movement of psytrance, which has mushroomed globally since its beginnings in Goa in the 1970s/1980s. Based on extensive international research, as the first detailed work on psychedelic trance, the book investigates the diverse roots and global proliferation of this music and festival culture. Consideration of comparative aesthetics, spiritual technologies and controversies with studied attention to internal dynamics will strike appeal among those holding academic and popular interests at the intersection of ritual, music and culture.

- by Graham St John
- •
- Religion, Parapsychology, Anthropology, Folklore

This chapter considers sites like Pripyat, in Chernobyl, as zones of alternative practice, especially in terms of urban exploration. At the same time, it offers a critique of such activities as a form of adventure tourism, contrasting the... more

- by Emma Fraser
- •
- Walter Benjamin, Liminality, Chernobyl, Urban Ruins
- by Markus Giesler
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- Marketing, Copyright, Consumer Behavior, Music Industry

Le Pouvoir d'une élite politique se célèbre lui-même au travers des symboles populaires.

- by Marie-Véronique Amella
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- Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Political Sociology, Mythology

An ostentatious cavalcade pulses through the sprawling gate on the verge
of the desert, sending dust clouds into orbit. Riding in this motley caravan,
virgins and veterans alike arrive in Black Rock City (BRC), the colossal
fire-arts gathering that for Labor Day week every August congresses in
Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, and more specifically, on the flat open
expanses of its a 400 square-mile playa. Burning Man has been installed in
this remote wilderness every year since 1990, migrating from San
Francisco’s Baker Beach, where a wooden effigy called “The Man” had
been razed each summer solstice since 1986. On “the playa,” this statue
stands at the center of a fire pageant—the “Fire Conclave” on “Burn
Night”—around which a city, a cultural movement, and an international
community has evolved. Participating in over 1000 theme camps, volunteering for shifts in dozens of departments, and afterwards returning to the “default” world, “Burners” negotiate a complex ethos known as the “Ten Principles.”1 While the means by which participants are “acculturated”
to this ethos are manifold, the primary vehicles of transmission are
collaborative art projects, many conspiring around the annual art theme.
As BRC has evolved a community ethos, a distinct form of artistic citizenship has been forged to address challenges associated with dis/assembling a city in unforgiving physical, political, and social environments. As it has met these challenges, Burning Man has germinated a culture reflexively proficient in addressing the concerns that jeopardize its reproduction.

- by Graham St John
- •
- Social Drama, Burning Man Festival, Victor Turner, Festival

This study addresses a lack of holistic understanding of experiential consumption by developing and empirically testing a conceptual model that investigates the process of experiential consumption – antecedents, the experience itself, and emotional responses. We explore Victor Turner’s anthropological concept of the liminoid to create an Experiential Liminoid Consumption (ELC) model, examining the relationships between experiential marketing and consumption constructs. The study adopted a quantitative methodology using a survey method and a sample of students. The conceptual model was analysed using partial least squares (PLS). Conclusions, implications, future directions, and limitations are suggested.

- by Kevin D O'Gorman
- •
- Marketing, Services Marketing and Management, Consumption, Liminality

In the following article, I will situate the theories of Victor Turner’s liminal and liminoid rituals and the definitions of Richard Schechner’s “Ritual as Performance” within the framework of the Holiday Season, namely Christmas. I will argue that Christmas is a complex ritual displaying both liminal and liminoid features in order to explore how the United States, as a pluralistic society requires both (liminal and liminoid rituals) to foster Christmas as a meaningful act that stabilizes our unpredictable and uncomfortable life experiences. To do this I will first, situate my argument within the history of Christmas celebration rituals up to the present. Second, I will provide an outline of performance and ritual theory as set forth by Richard Schechner, Emile Durkheim, and Victor Turner. This will include investigations into Ritual as Performance, Social Drama and Ritual, Ritual Theory in Relationships, Religion and Symbols, Liminal and Liminoid, Anti-structure, Communitas, Leisure, Status Reversal, and Jester Figures. Third, I will analyze the benefits and limitations of applying Ritual Theories to the performance of Christmas.

- by Rebecca Hammonds
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- Liminality, Ritual Theory, Victor Turner, Christmas
- by Lars Gertenbach
- •
- Sociology, Jean-Luc Nancy, History of Social Sciences, History of Sociology

- by Digvijay Pandya
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- Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Literature, Liminality

Tesis presentada para obtener el grado de Licenciado en Antropología Social.

- by Luis Antonio Guerrero Cantera
- •
- Habitus, Pierre Bourdieu, Victor Turner, Etnografia

Fruto de un trabajo de campo prolongado –realizado entre los años 1990 y 1993 en las comunidades campesinas de Huillcapata, Kallarrayán, Pampallacta, Patabamba, Rayanniyoc, Sequeraccay y Qenqo, en el Cusco–, el texto ofrece ricas observaciones etnográficas en las que el autor se pregunta por la importancia individual y social de la embriaguez en los Andes. Siguiendo las ideas de Victor Turner sobre transformaciones de las estructuras sociales y de Erving Goffman sobre construcción de identidades en relaciones cara a cara, el libro analiza las borracheras como momentos de gran acción que rompe el curso de la vida cotidiana. Durante las borracheras se relajan las conductas estereotipadas que rigen la acción cotidiana y se crea una atmósfera de rompimiento de roles y de jerarquías sociales, muy especialmente a las de género y etnicidad.
En términos etnográficos, es imposible alcanzar la meta —propuesta por Malinowsky en su Argonautas del Pacífico Sur— de asir el punto de vista nativo, su relación con la vida, y su visión del mundo. A lo que uno puede tener acceso es a una intersubjetividad creada cuando la comunicación toma lugar. Desde esta perspectiva, lo que para Catherine Allen fue el chacchado de coca, para el autor fue el beber alcohol el que proveyó el contexto por excelencia de comunicación. Todas las actividades y relaciones sociales tomaban lugar en este contexto y en aquellas es en las que está puesta su atención al describir los eventos.
https://www.amazon.com/Alcohol-sur-andino-Embriaguez-jerarqu%C3%ADas-ebook/dp/B01LEPAMOS

Attraverso un esperimento svolto nel 2011, riprendendo la teoria di Turner sui fenomeni liminoidi in relazione ai drammi sociali, sono andata alla ricerca del dramma sociale rappresentato attraverso le performance di improvvisazione in danza. L’esperimento ha quindi coinvolto 6 performer in un workshop dando vita a un ciclo di 12 performance all’aperto nel centro storico di Firenze, durante le quali è stato intervistato il pubblico di passaggio sulle impressioni e parole chiave che le performance suscitavano in loro. Dalla ricorrenza di alcuni termini è stato evidente il collegamento con il concetto postmoderno di libertà. Secondo Bauman viviamo in una società in cui è stato guadagnato in libertà individuale perdendo però quella sicurezza che teneva insieme la società moderna.
Nel mondo postmoderno vige la frammentazione e la mancanza di un quadro, sembrano mancare gli strumenti concettuali per esaminare la situazione in modo coerente e integrato. La vita individuale è concepita più che altro come un opera o come un’impresa, come qualcosa che va sviluppata, perfezionata e rielaborata fino a raggiungere il massimo potenziale. Al giorno d’oggi sembra che anche semplici scelte, come quale detersivo comprare, ci mettano di fronte a una crescente incapacità di scegliere. Nel gioco di specchi dell’improvvisazione come fenomeno liminoide possiamo quindi vedere chiaramente quali sono i nessi tra questa pratica performativa e la società postmoderna: il performer, improvvisando, si definisce nel presente della performance, compiendo le sue scelte passo dopo passo sulla scena. Si pone in una situazione di “precarietà creativa”, di “crisi volontaria”, come se avesse riprodotto una “scenografia postmoderna”.
Sembra che l’arte abbia proposto uno spazio protetto in cui potersi liberare
dall’ansia della scelta, in cui le parole chiave sono accettazione, ascolto e
mancanza di giudizio. Sembra inoltre aver riportato l’attenzione su un nodo
cruciale: la scelta non è quasi mai razionale, è intuitiva e sociale.

Each year in June, the Dutch island of Terschelling turns into a natural stage for the Oerol festival. This 10-day cultural event offers its visitors a unique carnival of indoor and outdoor theatrical and artistic experiences. Over the years, this recurring event has grown into a contemporary cultural tradition. The island's relative remoteness contributes to the ritual of disengagement from daily life, and to the immersion into a temporal, parallel world, where one can play and let go. Through active engagement of the festival visitors, and the integration of the landscape in works of art and in theatre productions, the entire island becomes a constructed location, where in dialogue with the natural environment the consumption of culture leads to a deep sense of space.

- by Pernette P Wijnen
- •
- The Carnivalesque, Ritual Theory, Festivals, Victor Turner

This is the first in-depth study of the Malay martial art, silat, and the first ethnographic account of the Haqqani Islamic Sufi Order. Drawing on 12 years of research and practice in Malaysia, Singapore, and England, social anthropologist and martial arts expert D.S. Farrer considers Malay silat through the transnational Sufi silat group called Seni Silat Haqq, an off-shoot of the Haqqani-Naqshbandi Sufi Order. This account combines theories from the anthropology of art, embodiment, enchantment, and performance to show how war magic and warrior religion amalgamate in traditional Malay martial arts, where practitioners distance themselves from "becoming animal" or going into trance, preferring a practice of spontaneous bodily movement by summoning the power of Allah. Silat and Sufism are revealed through the social dramas of 40-day boot-camps where Malay and European practitioners endeavor to become shadows of the Prophet, only to have their faith tested through a ritual ordeal of boiling oil. The unseen realm and magical embodiment is further approached through an account of Malay deathscapes where moving through the patterns of silat summons the spirits of ancestral heroes. Those interested in Malaysia, Sufism, transnational Islam, and the study of religion, conversion, magic, sorcery, theatre and martial arts will find this book indispensable.

- by DS Farrer
- •
- Anthropology of Performance, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Sufism

(Đây là bản thảo của bài viết đăng trên Tạp chí Khoa học xã hội (TPHCM) số 5(189)-2014) Từ những năm 60-70 của thế kỷ XX, việc tìm hiểu văn hóa của các cộng đồng người thông qua biểu tượng trở nên phổ biến trong lĩnh vực nhân học văn hóa (McGee & Warms 2008:482). Cách tiếp cận biểu tượng dựa trên giả định cho rằng hành động của con người có mang ý nghĩa và phân tích ý nghĩa là trọng tâm của nhân học. Do xem văn hóa là một hiện tượng tinh thần nên các nhà nhân học biểu tượng phản bác quan niệm nghiên cứu văn hóa dựa theo mô hình toán học hoặc logic học của các nhà dân tộc phân loại học hay các nhà nhân học nhận thức (McGee & Warms 2008:482). Và tiếp cận biểu tượng cũng là một sự phản ứng với thuyết lựa chọn duy lý cũng như thuyết duy vật (Lương Văn Hy 2011) vốn phổ biến ở nhiều ngành trong những thế kỷ trước đó. Cách tiếp cận biểu tượng gồm nhiều khuynh hướng, trong đó hai hướng phân tích nổi trội là khuynh hướng diễn giải và khuynh hướng tiếp cận cấu trúc chức năng (McGee & Warms 2008:482; Ortner 1984:128). 1. KHUYNH HƯỚNG DIỄN GIẢI Đại diện cho khuynh hướng diễn giải trong cách tiếp cận biểu tượng là Clifford Geertz (1926-2006). Theo tinh thần chung của cách tiếp cận này, Geertz xem việc khảo sát ý nghĩa là trọng tâm của những công trình nghiên cứu văn hóa. Luận điểm quan trọng của ông là xem văn hóa như " một tập hợp các bản văn ". Trong tiểu luận Đam mê cờ bạc – Những ghi chép về chọi gà ở Bali (Deep play: Notes in the Balinese Cockfight), Geertz viết rằng: " Nếu người nào đó xem đá gà, hay bất kỳ cấu trúc biểu tượng ổn định chung nào như là phương tiện cho việc " nói điều nào đó về thứ gì đó " (dẫn lại câu ngạn ngữ nổi tiếng của Aristotle), thì người đó đối mặt với một vấn đề không phải trong guồng máy xã hội mà là ngữ nghĩa xã hội. Đối với nhà nhân học vốn có sự quan tâm đến các nguyên tắc xã hội được công thức hóa, thì vấn đề không phải là khuyến khích hay khen ngợi đá gà, mà là người đó có thể học được gì về những nguyên tắc từ việc khảo sát văn hóa như là một sự tập hợp các bản văn? " (1973c:448) 1. Văn hóa – vấn đề ngữ nghĩa xã hội mà Geertz đề cập – có liên quan chặt chẽ đến biểu tượng. Với ông, biểu tượng là phương tiện thể hiện và trao truyền văn hóa, nói khác đi là thể hiện và trao truyền những khuôn mẫu của ý nghĩa (pattern of meanings). Nhờ vào phương tiện này, con người có thể giao tiếp với nhau, ghi nhớ và phát triển kiến thức của mình về cuộc sống, đồng thời hình thành những thái độ trước cuộc sống (1973b:89). Geertz không chú ý nhiều đến việc phân loại hay hệ thống hóa các loại biểu tượng khác nhau. Ông cũng không nhấn mạnh đến sự 1 Tạm dịch từ nguyên văn: If one takes the cockfight, or any other collectively sustained symbolic structure, as a means of " saying something of something " (to invoke a famous Aristotelian tag), then one is faced with a problem not in social mechanics but social semantics. For the anthropologist, whose concern is with formulating sociological principles, not with promoting or appreciating cockfights, the question is, what does one learn about such principles from examining culture as an assemblage of texts?

In this chapter I address some of the criticisms of field theory, but my intention is not to provide yet another appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of Bourdieu’s field theory. Instead, my aim is to examine the potential of the concept of field to shed light on obscure aspects of human sociality in tandem with other concepts, including non-field concepts. The chapter is organised as follows. First I reintroduce the Manchester School’s concept of field after decades of virtual oblivion and contrast it with Bourdieu’s own field concept. I then take up two criticisms – namely the view that field theory cannot account for change and the metaphor of the field as a game – and use them to explore the idea that the concept of field can in fact be an invaluable tool in the study of dynamic, heterogeneous domains of practice and sociality. I conclude with a reflection on the limitations and potentialities of this plural approach to the concept of field and with suggestions for future research.

- by John Postill
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- Sociology, Social Theory, Social Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology

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
- •
- Developmental Psychology, Development Studies, Ritual, Adolescent Development

Revisión general de las teorías de Victor Turner

- by Francisco Javier Mireles Alonso
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- Victor Turner, Antropología

Burning Man is a city-scale participatory arts gathering reassembled annually in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, and an inspiration for satellite events worldwide. Based on qualitative research, the chapter adapts heterotopia with the goal of comprehending the hyper-liminal “other space” of Black Rock City, a frontier carnival with a threatened heteroclite ethos (the “Ten Principles”). Informed by an understanding that heterotopias are dramatic stages for the performance of contradictions, the chapter illustrates how paradox is the dynamic currency of Burning Man. Tracing the exchange between two archetypal figures – the artist and tourist – the event’s stature as a participatory spectacle is interpolated. Attention is directed to the community’s response to an undermining “culture of convenience” – a crisis exposing tensions between “participants” and “spectators.” Victor Turner’s “social drama” model serves to illustrate how the community have negotiated this crisis in art projects that dramatise paradox. Three projects demonstrate how this "redressive artopia" holds the potential to transform eventgoers and enable “burner” identity by navigating boundaries separating the artist/tourist, producer/consumer, participant/spectator, self/other. This event-city case study evaluates heterotopology for the study of intentionally transformational events.

- by Graham St John
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- Theatre Studies, Heterotopia, Utopian Studies, Liminality

In this essay, I examined the significance of graphic novels as polyvalent texts that hold
the potential for creating an aesthetic sense of flow for readers and consumers. In building a justification for the rhetorical examination of comic book culture, I looked at Kenneth Burke’s critique of art under capitalism in order to explore the dimensions between comic book creation, distribution, consumption, and reaction from fandom. I also examined Victor Turner’s theoretical scope of flow, as an aesthetic related to ritual, communitas, and the liminoid. I analyzed the graphic novels’ Green Lantern: Rebirth and Y: The Last Man as case studies toward the rhetorical significance of retroactive continuity and the somatic potential of comic books to serve as equipment for living. These conclusions lay groundwork for multiple directions of future research.

- by Garret Castleberry
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- Mythology, Rhetoric, Performance Studies, Popular Culture
- by Ester Bardone
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- Performance Studies, Cultural Theory, Performance Theory, Erving Goffman

סוגיית פולחן הקברים בעם ישראל, או "העלייה לקברי צדיקים" בעגה היהודית, היא תופעה גלויה ומוכרת מאות רבות של שנים, ועם זאת מסתורית לגביי מקורותיה ושורשיה.
ההתחקות אחר מקורותיו של פולחן הקברים היהודי מעלה, כי למרות שהמצדדים במעשה זה פונים למקרא לתת צידוק למעשיהם, רק בתקופת התלמוד התגבש באופן רשמי רעיון הפנייה לנפטרים, ועם זאת לקח עוד מאות רבות של שנים עד שהתפתחו עליות רחבות היקף ובתאריכים קבועים לקברי צדיקים.
למעשה, רק במאה השתיים-עשרה אנו מדווחים מפי נוסעים שביקרו בבבל על עליות שכללו רבבות עולים ודמויות בולטות בהנהגה המקומית, ואילו בארץ ישראל, התהליך היה אטי ומוגבל עוד יותר, והגיע לשיאו רק במאות החמש-עשרה והשש-עשרה במקביל לפעילותם של מקובלי צפת ובראשם האר"י .
תובנה נוספת שמעלה מחקר זה, מלמדת כי רעיונות הפנייה לנפטרים לא צמחו בחלל ריק, אלא במקביל אליהם התפתחו רעיונות הפוכים הגורסים כי מדובר בהרגל מגונה המזוהה כ"דרישה אל המתים". דעות מנוגדות אלו, בסוגיית העלייה לקברי צדיקים, נשמעות עד היום .

- by Avner Mushnik
- •
- Pilgrimage, Judaism, Mircea Eliade, Victor Turner

As a follow-up to some of my earlier works on the subject matter, this contribution conceptualizes the Fantastic in literature and other cultural media as the staging of liminality, or as the liminality of representation, respectively. In order to achieve this, a compromise is sought between positions of (literary) anthropology, constructivism and post/structuralism - an attempt at a synthesis, which is much indebted to the works of Jacques Derrida, Victor Turner, and Hans Richard Brittnacher.

- by Clemens Ruthner
- •
- Cultural Theory, Literary Theory, Liminality, The Fantastic

This paper explores Herbert Mason’s rendition of Gilgamesh as a work that navigates the loss of friendship, and self, in terms of Gaston Bachelard’s concept of ‘poetic space’. In the first section I foreground the relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh in terms of Hegelian recognition. I argue that this recognition informs both the depth of their friendship and Gilgamesh’s sense of loss upon Enkidu’s demise. In the second section, using the work of Victor Turner, I develop a notion of Gilgamesh as a figure undergoing a liminal passage as he searches for immortality. In the concluding section I show that Bachelardian spaces underlie Mason’s poetic representation of Gilgamesh as a liminal figure.

- by David Capps
- •
- Gaston Bachelard, Liminality, Lyric poetry, Gilgamesh Epic

This article is dedicated to the symbolism of a religious site (the church) and a religious object (the cross) in Christianity in a concrete locality and community. The study was based on Victor Turner's theory of rituals and symbols. I used Turner's definitions and classifications of symbols as well as his theses related to rituals. My aim was to demonstrate that the church and the cross can be categorised as dominant symbols in Christianity, even though they bear distinct characteristics of dominant symbols. The data analysed in the present text were collected by the ethnographic interview and participant observation methods during ethnographic field research. The research was conducted in eastern Slovakia, in a village in which the majority of residents are affiliated with the Greek Catholic faith. Building on the analysis of ethnographic data, I will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of Turner's theory of symbols. During the analysis, I will suggest possible answers, stemming mainly from cognitive anthropology, for certain questions left unanswered by Turner.

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
- •
- Shakespeare, Bakhtin, Giorgio Agamben, Shakespearean Drama

Este trabalho tem como objetivo entender a formação dos pastores pentecostais: o processo da constituição de suas subjetividades, bem como as práticas e representações envolvidas na definição daqueles que seguirão a carreira de pastor pentecostal. Apresentarei dois processos que entendo serem essenciais para a formação do pastor: o primeiro é a construção da narrativa do chamado, na qual o líder pentecostal consolida sua vocação e mostra que foi escolhido por Deus para exercer um ministério específico no mundo. O segundo processo consiste na necessidade – e obrigação - que os vocacionados têm de serem “usados por Deus”, ou seja, agirem direcionados pela unção de Deus, termo por eles designado para representar o poder transcendental, especial e principalmente, na performance da prédica direcionada ao restante dos fieis. As análises aqui apresentadas baseiam-se em trabalho de campo conduzido, primeiramente, na Escola de Líderes da Associação Vitória em Cristo (ESLAVEC), realizada na cidade de Águas de Lindóia, em São Paulo, em dezembro de 2012. Após o congresso, acompanhei jovens pastores e candidatos ao pastorado pentecostal em algumas igrejas, principalmente nas filiais da Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo no Recife, nos bairros de Boa Viagem (a sede pernambucana) e Cordeiro. Tendo percebido a dimensão interdenominacional da ESLAVEC, também acompanhei e entrevistei jovens pastores pentecostais das igrejas Vida e Paz, na cidade de Camaragibe (PE), e a Igreja Batista Missionária Palavra Viva, no bairro da Várzea, em Recife, como contraponto reflexivo, no intuito de testar os limites de minhas generalizações no campo pentecostal a respeito da constituição do líder pentecostal.

- by Cleonardo Mauricio Junior
- •
- Anthropology, Performance Studies, Pentecostalism, Religious Experience
- by Smadar Lavie
- •
- Discourse Analysis, Religion, Sociology, Social Movements

ConFest (Conference/Festival) is an alternative lifestyle festival hosted by the Down to
Earth Co-operative Society (DTE). Born in 1976, ConFest has become a principal site for
the celebration of Australia’s alternative movement - the country’s marginal centre. A
permissive enclave for exploring, exchanging and contesting diverse alternate discourse
and practice, this vast counterscape represents an organic catalyst for the multidimensional
(re)production and suffusion of alternative culture.
With the purpose of devising an apposite rendering of ConFest, a five year multi-modal
research commitment has demanded re-evaluation of the most influential paradigm in the
study of alternative lifestyle events - that of Victor Turner. The thesis undertakes a
twofold deconstruction of the Turnerian paradigm.
First, I identify Turner’s archetypal liminal modalities (play, drama, and community)
demonstrating how each, through their unique on-site expression, contextualise the
performance and realisation of various qualities of authenticity. I provide special attention
to ferality, a local eco-radical career accessed and performed at ConFest. Second, I
respond critically to Turner’s essentialist legacy (the homogeneity and non-carnality of
actors) through an exploration of ConFest’s identifiable heterogeneity and corporeality.
Specifically, I regard ConFest as: (a) an alternative cultural heterotopia, a hyper matrix of
performance zones occupied by variously complementary and competing de-centrist neotribes,
and; (b) a pleasurescape of performative carnality, a realm of the liminal body.
Therefore, via a detailed investigation of a contested and sensuous counter-community, I
reconfigure Turner to provide an appropriately post-structuralist heuristic of public events.
Drawing upon extensive research data and the hitherto unexplored connections between
various strands of contemporary writing, this is an ethnography on authenticity performed
and realised at an organic hyper-liminal centre on the edge of Australian culture.

- by Graham St John
- •
- Social Movements, Heterotopia, The Carnivalesque, New social movements
- by Smadar Lavie
- •
- Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Geography, Development Economics

Sembolik antropoloji, sembolleri sosyal ve kültürel bağlamlarda inceleyen antropoloji alanıdır. Bazı kaynaklarda yorumlayıcı antropoloji olarak adlandırılabilir. Bu makale, sembolik antropolojinin temel teorilerini ve yöntemlerini tartışmaktadır. Ayrıca disiplinin tarihini ve bu özel alanın gelişimine büyük katkıda bulunan Clifford Geertz, Mary Douglas ve Victor Turner gibi önde gelen bilim insanlarının eserlerini de gözden geçirmektedir. Makale, kültürel sembolleri çeşitli kavramlar kullanarak yorumlayan iyi bilinen antropolojik çalışmalardan örnekler sunmaktadır. Ayrıca makalede, günümüzde yer alan sembolik antropolojiye yönelik mevcut eleştirilerin nedenleri açıklanmaktadır. Makale, yeni başlayan kültürel antropologlar için iyi bir kaynak olabilir.

- by Aray Rakhimzhanova
- •
- Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, Symbols
- by Dr Innes Kennedy
- •
- Victor Turner

ITALIANO. Il saggio propone i primi riscontri di una ricognizione storica circa la ricezione dei Performance Studies in ambito italiano, con particolare riguardo all’opera del suo principale promotore, vale a dire Richard Schechner (senza dimenticare, in ogni caso, l'apporto di Victor Turner, ma tenendo conto che la ricezione dei suoi studi presenta una vicenda autonoma nell’ambito delle discipline demo-etno-antropologiche italiane che precede quella dei Performance Studies). Seguendo il corso delle traduzioni italiane degli scritti di Schechner e il loro intrecciarsi con le ricerche autoctone, sollecitando le testimonianze dirette dei diversi studiosi italiani che ne hanno promosso la conoscenza nel nostro paese, nonché considerando le principali posizioni critiche espresse dalla teatrologia italiana nei confronti della proposta dei Performance Studies, l’intervento prova a ricostruire l’itinerario storico e il profilo intellettuale di un confronto ormai più che trentennale tra i Performance Studies di matrice anglosassone e la Nuova Teatrologia di matrice europeo-continentale e in particolare italiana. Ai semplici dati di cronaca (che si suppone possano offrire dati comunque interessanti ai fini del dibattito scientifico) si affianca anche una riflessione di carattere teorico ed epistemologico, volta a rilevare e discutere alcuni aspetti dei principali punti di contatto e di differenza esistenti tra le due prospettive di indagine.
ENGLISH The paper aims to show the provisional outcome of a historical and theoretical survey concerning the insertion of Performance Studies in Italian academy. The focus will be mostly on the work of the field's founder and pioneer, Richard Schechner. This does not mean to forget the second leading figure in the field, Victor Turner; it simply means to recognize that Turner’s work was aptly received, in Italy as well as in other European countries, mainly in the field of social and cultural anthropology, apart from theatre studies. On the one hand, I will follow the timeline of the Italian translation of Schechner's writings; on the other hand, possibly making use of first-hand evidences, I will try to bring the attention toward the sometimes controversial dialogue between Italian "New Theatrology" and English-speaking Performance Studies. My point is that even simple chronicle data can shed light about analogies and differences between the two study perspectives.

- by Fabrizio Deriu
- •
- Performing Arts, Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Theatre Anthropology

"This article takes issue with Victor Turner’s influential, yet essentialist, category
of the limen. While acknowledging Turner’s continuing significance in the
analysis of public events, I draw upon detailed ethnography of one of Australia’s
contemporary pilgrimage centres, the alternative lifestyle event ConFest, to
reconfigure his project. Although ConFest may prove to be an exemplary field of
liminality, as a decidedly contested and sensuous landscape, it demands reevaluation
of the implicitly consensual and non-carnal limen. I offer the concepts
of alternative cultural heterotopia and liminoid embodiment, with the purpose of
fashioning new directions in the study of alternative lifestyle, and other public
events. Attending to contemporary pilgrimage research, spatial analysis and
applying the ideas of Michel Maffesoli and Hakim Bey, this is a post-structuralist
contribution to the anthropology of public events."

- by Graham St John
- •
- Festivals and music, Heterotopia, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Liminality