Victor Turner

The symbolic approach to ritual was first written about by Victor Turner (1920-1983), who studied the Ndembu tribe of Zambia, and studied their use of symbols in rituals and rites of passage. Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was an American anthropologist whose largest and most important works were on the Balinese cockfights in Indonesia, and defined culture as a web of ideas expressed in symbols, that can have multiple meanings. Stanley Tambiah (1929-2014) was a Professor Emeritus at Harvard that formulated a performative approach to ritual, where every human action was a ‘performance’ and all performances were telling to the culture. Structure and communitas are the two main cornerstones to Victor Turner’s theory of symbols. They are two opposing yet mutually necessary aspects of social life: the concept of structure is defined as “society as a structured, differentiated, and often hierarchical system of politico-legal-economic positions with many types of evaluation, separating men in terms of ‘more’ or ‘less.’” Communitas, on the other hand, is defined as “society as an unstructured or rudimentarily structured and relatively undifferentiated comitatus, community, or even communion of equal individuals who submit together to the general authority of the ritual elders.” And it usually comes together during times of liminality.…

For Turner, whose task has been actually influential, the anthropologist is by no way is limited to the actor's comprehension of references. We cannot deny that, the values and norms of ritual actions may be so self-evident as to inhibit the actor from whether it connects to either part or the society as a whole. In verifying the symbolic structure of Ndembu rituals, Turner describes three different levels or process for deriving at meanings that go beyond the description of activity. Firstly,…

In this essay I will present an argument that The Room attempts to portray an engaged couple about to get married through multiple symbolic actions, and to demonstrate this notion that the majority of society believes a purposeful and achieved life comes through the ritual of uniting individuals through marriage. Also using the theorists, I will be able to provide insight as to why the term ‘ritual’ could be considered fluid. I will begin to support this argument by discussing multiple…

In “The Ritual Process,” Victor Turner employs the term “liminoid” to define modern rites that transport individuals out of the ordinary realm and into a realm of “anti-structure” where they are “betwixt and between” societal statuses. (94) New Age practices are liminoid in the sense that they are thought of as doorways to sacred transitioning, during which energy is ordered and self-actualization takes place. In the realm of the liminoid, the self is liberated, “de-identification is…

Nat Turner's Confessions and Frederick Douglass' The Heroic Slave The names of Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass are remembered because of the fame that they earned as black Americans during pre-Civil War slave period. However, their names color the pages of history books for widely different reasons: Nat Turner led one of the greatest slave revolts in almost 150 years of slavery, while Frederick Douglass obtained his freedom and education, going on to become a renowned speaker, author, and…

Nat Turner was born a slave in a Virginia plantation owned by Benjamin Turner. He was very religious and believed that when he was little, he talked about events that had occurred before his birth. He claimed that he received divine visions and that god had spoken to him. According to Turner, the insurrection was god’s will that he was prophesized to carry out. These murders were carried out to terrorize whites, yet abolitionists still supported their actions, little did they know that the men…

“Do not give up, stay strong, keep your head up high, keep trying, work hard, you got this…” these are few of the many different phrases my best friend has said to me. These words demonstrate the motivation that all of us need in order to be strong and successful in this world. Although we all go through difficult situations in our lives, we learn how to deal with each and every one of them. In fact, we all have someone that we go to with our problems, that has greatly impacted our lives and/or…

Wrinkles start to show as early as age 35 and studies have shown that these wrinkles are not attributed to smoking or elevated UV levels from sun exposure[5]. Treatment options Height and other physical features like the webbed neck of individuals with Turner’s syndrome can affect how they feel about their self esteem and how they feel about their body image. This, in turn, can affect peer relationships. In a study done by Cragg and Lafreniere, participants were provided with a survey that…

Turner faces the most conflicts with his dad, Reverend Buckminster. It is hard enough being the minister's son but not being able to see his only friend because she's black. Being a Buckminster requires being a role model to the town of Phippsburg and to God himself. In “Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy” by Gary D. Schmidt, Turner is involved with a lot of person vs person conflicts. Turner gets in physical and emotional conflicts with his dad, Lizzie Bright, Mrs.Cobbs, Willis Hurd, and so…

"The Fires of Jubilee" occurred in Southampton, Virginia in the 1800's. The story comes to realization amid a period in which enslavement was the standard, particularly in the South. It depicts the battles and disorder of one such slave named Nat Turner in his journey to pick up his opportunity. It tells the story of a man destined to be a slave and his mission to amend his fate, which at last prompts to his sad demise. Nat Turner was not just a smart man, he knew how to read and compose;…