How did Victor Turner explain the function of rituals?

Abstract. Like Clifford Geertz and Mary Douglas, Victor Turner considers religion the key to culture and ritual the key to religion. Ritual serves to express those cosmic beliefs–not for the scientific purpose of explaining or controlling the cosmos but for the existential purpose of giving human beings a place in it.

What are the phases of rites of passage according to Turner?

Rites of passage have three phases: separation, liminality, and incorporation, as van Gennep described.

In what way did Victor Turner Analyse the Mukunda ritual?

Turner’s analysis of Mukanda locates ritual behaviour within its social context. In his words, “…it became clear to me that the events both in and out of a ritual context I observed at Mukanda were influenced by the structure of a field that included both ritual and social components”. (Turner, 1967 : 262).

How did Victor Turner build on Van Gennep’s theory of ritual process?

Building upon van Gennep’s observation that rites of passage and other rituals are liminal in that they temporarily extricate participants from their social statuses, Turner argued that rites of passage are antithetical to existing social structure and “subjunctive” because they invite new possibilities.

What are the key features of a ritual?

The first characteristic is a feeling or emotion of respect, awe, fascination, or dread in relation to the sacred. The second characteristic of ritual involves its dependence upon a belief system that is usually expressed in the language of myth.

What are rituals divided into?

Rituals tend to be organized in a cycle of performances (annual, biennial, quinquennial, and so on); even in the case of contingent rituals, each is performed eventually.

What was Victor Turner known for?

Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 – 18 December 1983) was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often referred to as symbolic and interpretive anthropology.

What is Turner’s communitas?

Victor and Edith Turner Communitas is an acute point of community. It takes community to the next level and allows the whole of the community to share a common experience, usually through a rite of passage.

What is the ritual process according to Victor Turner?

The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of “Communitas.”. He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure.

What is Victor Turner’s concept of communitas?

In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of “Communitas.” He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure.

What is the role of Rites of passage according to Turner?

A second role of rites of passage, according to Turner, is that they direct the attention of a society’s members to their community. Turner understood ritual and social structure to stand in a dialectical relationship. Ritual, including rites of passage, emerges in response to structure and its limitations.

What did Victor Turner study?

Victor Turner (1920-1983) was a research officer at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Zambia, where he began what was to be a lifelong study of Ndembu village life, ritual, and symbolism. He taught at the University of Manchester from 1955 to 1963, when he moved to the United States.