"Ritual is a culturally constructed system of symbolic communication. It is constituted of patterned and ordered sequences of words and acts." (Tambiah 1985:128).
In my essay, I looked at Arnold van Genneps's theory of rites de passage and liminality - basically, that ritual is a process through 3 stages from one 'world' to the next; the preliminal (rite of separation), the liminal phase (transition phase), then the post-liminal phase (rite of aggregation), where the process can be from a stage in someone's life, a mental threshold or a physical place (Gennep [1909] 1960). The liminal is a kind of 'limbo', where status, identity, rank and gender are suspended as if it is an 'other world'.
Turner (1969) builds on Gennep's idea, and believes that in the liminal phase, individuals are in a structure-less community - he calls this 'communitas'. Although for most people, this is a temporary phase, such as in the ethnographic example of royal Swazi ritual where a hut represents the liminal and the royal member stays inside for less than a week, some adopt it as a permanent state. I used the example of monks as used by Tambiah and others, and Turner uses the example of hippies (who he delicately describes as "bums"! I disagree on this...) that these people live in a community of no ranking, and where gender is indistinguishable.
There is also matter that ritual gives power to the weak, and strips it from the poor in ceremonies. This is seen in both Swazi royal ritual and Zambian Ndembu installation ritual of the Kanongesha (Beidelman 1966), (Gennep [1909] 1960). I also identified the relationship being 'performative' aspects of ritual and their symbolic power in highlighting the participants' (also known in anthropology as actors) beliefs.
As you can see, I actually really enjoyed writing this essay. I might have also included a Joni Mitchell lyrics in relation to Gennep's "hippie" example. Let's hope my tutors don't mind. I love this song, so here it is:
Turner (1969) builds on Gennep's idea, and believes that in the liminal phase, individuals are in a structure-less community - he calls this 'communitas'. Although for most people, this is a temporary phase, such as in the ethnographic example of royal Swazi ritual where a hut represents the liminal and the royal member stays inside for less than a week, some adopt it as a permanent state. I used the example of monks as used by Tambiah and others, and Turner uses the example of hippies (who he delicately describes as "bums"! I disagree on this...) that these people live in a community of no ranking, and where gender is indistinguishable.
There is also matter that ritual gives power to the weak, and strips it from the poor in ceremonies. This is seen in both Swazi royal ritual and Zambian Ndembu installation ritual of the Kanongesha (Beidelman 1966), (Gennep [1909] 1960). I also identified the relationship being 'performative' aspects of ritual and their symbolic power in highlighting the participants' (also known in anthropology as actors) beliefs.
As you can see, I actually really enjoyed writing this essay. I might have also included a Joni Mitchell lyrics in relation to Gennep's "hippie" example. Let's hope my tutors don't mind. I love this song, so here it is:
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