Gates As Boundaries

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gates As Boundaries Chapter 11 Gates as Boundaries 1 Gates and Liminality The concept of liminality was first introduced in the context of ritual by the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep. van Gennep described rites of passage as having three stages: separation, limen (“threshold” in Latin), and aggregation.1 Those who undergo such a rite are removed from society and taken to a place of seclusion (separation) where they carry out a series of ritual ordeals, and then are reincorporated into their society with a new status (aggregation). The middle, liminal stage is thus a transitional period between the two others.2 V. Turner expanded upon the idea of liminality, describing the period as a fun- damentally “ambiguous” state, “betwixt and between” customary behavior and social structures.3 During a liminal state, the status quo is upended: one is re- quired to do things ordinarily considered taboo, and social status among the initiates is negated.4 It was also “a period of special and dangerous power, which had to be constrained and channeled to protect the social order.”5 In many rites of passage, initiates are thought to be shaped by deities or other higher powers in preparation for their new status,6 and the period in general is characterized by magico-religious properties, dangerous or polluting for those involved.7 1 Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (trans. M.V. Vizedom and G.L. Caffee; Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1960), 74–86. 2 Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer- sity Press, 1967), 102. 3 Turner, Forest of Symbols, 96–97. 4 A. Barnard and J. Spencer, “Rites of Passage,” in Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropol- ogy (ed. A. Barnard and J. Spencer; 2nd ed.; Florence, KY: Routledge, 2009), 616. Further, the initiates have no status, their behavior is marked by passive submission, and they must obey those who initiate them, who represent the authority of tradition. In this state, they are a tabula rasa, “on which is inscribed the knowledge and wisdom of the group, in those respects that pertain to the new group status” (Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti- Structure [The Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures; New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995], 103). The ordeal fosters communitas – a homogeneity and comraderie – among the initiates (Turner, Forest of Symbols, 99–100; Ritual Process, 95–97), which is paradoxically necessary to main- tain social structure (Turner, Ritual Process, 97). 5 Charles Lindholm, “Liminality,” in The Dictionary of Anthropology (ed. T. Barfield; Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 288. 6 Turner, Ritual Process, 106. 7 Turner, Forest of Symbols, 97; Ritual Process, 108–109; Lindholm, “Liminality,” 288. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi:10.1163/9789004416673_013 <UN> 238 Chapter 11 Danger lies in transitional states, simply because transition is neither one state nor the next, it is undefinable. The person who must pass from one to another is himself in danger and emanates danger to others. The dan- ger is controlled by ritual which precisely separates him from his old status, segregates him for a time and then publicly declares his entry to his new status.8 Liminality is a property of space as much as of time;9 a liminal space is thus a location between two spheres of being which carries the same connotations of a liminal period described above. Since Turner’s influential treatment of liminality in 1967, the concept has been borrowed from the anthropology of ritual and reappropriated in many diverse fields – applied to everything from ocean beaches to management consulting to teacher preparation.10 This is to be expected, since virtually any object, time, or space may be understood as transitional between two other objects, times, or spaces.11 The more extended applications, however, usually involve something far milder than van Gennepian liminality, often implying little more than a transition of some sort between two phases.12 8 Douglas, Purity and Danger, 97. 9 Bjørn Thomassen, “The Uses and Meanings of Liminality,” International Journal of Anthro- pology 2/1 (2009): 15–16. 10 See (respectively) Robert Preston-Whyte, “The Beach as a Liminal Space,” in A Companion to Tourism (ed. A.A. Lew, C.M. Hall, and A.M. Williams; Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 349–359; Barbara Czarniawska and Carmelo Mazza, “Consulting as a Liminal Space,” Human Rela- tions 56 (2003): 267–290; Alison Cook-Sather, “Newly Betwixt and Between: Revising Lim- inality in the Context of a Teacher Preparation Program,” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 37/2 (2006): 110–127. Compare also Thomassen, “The Uses and Meanings of Liminality,” 18–19. 11 As Thomassen puts it: “In Turner’s own words, liminality refers to any “betwixt and be- tween” situation or object. It is evident that this understanding opens up space for possi- ble uses of the concept far beyond that which Turner himself had suggested. Speaking very broadly, liminality is applicable to both space and time. Single moments, longer pe- riods, or even whole epochs can be liminal. Liminal places can be specific thresholds; they can also be more extended areas, like “borderlands” or, arguably, whole countries, placed in important in-between positions between larger civilizations. Liminality can also be applied to both single individuals and to larger groups (cohorts or villages), or whole so- cieties, or maybe even civilizations” (“The Uses and Meanings of Liminality,” 15–16). Com- pare Lindholm, who says “one problem with liminality was deciding when a state was indeed liminal – the term, like the situation it described, tended to spread beyond defini- tional boundaries” (“Liminality,” 288). 12 Bjørn Thomassen, “Liminality,” in The Encyclopedia of Social Theory (ed. A. Harrington, B.L. Marshall, and H.-P. Müller; London: Routledge, 2006), 322–323; “The Uses and Meanings <UN>.
Recommended publications
  • The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 3 of 12) by James George Frazer
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 3 of 12) by James George Frazer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license Title: The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 3 of 12) Author: James George Frazer Release Date: January 12, 2013 [Ebook 41832] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN BOUGH (THIRD EDITION, VOL. 3 OF 12)*** The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion By James George Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool Third Edition. Vol. III. Part II Taboo and the Perils of the Soul New York and London MacMillan and Co. 1911 Contents Preface. .2 Chapter I. The Burden Of Royalty. .6 § 1. Royal and Priestly Taboos. .6 § 2. Divorce of the Spiritual from the Temporal Power. 24 Chapter II. The Perils Of The Soul. 35 § 1. The Soul as a Mannikin. 35 § 2. Absence and Recall of the Soul. 39 § 3. The Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection. 93 Chapter III. Tabooed Acts. 122 § 1. Taboos on Intercourse with Strangers. 122 § 2. Taboos on Eating and Drinking. 138 § 3. Taboos on shewing the Face. 143 § 4. Taboos on quitting the House. 146 § 5. Taboos on leaving Food over. 150 Chapter IV.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociolinguistics Study on Taboos
    International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2020, PP 88-92 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2349-0381.0701010 www.arcjournals.org Sociolinguistics Study on Taboos Fan Mengxun* Department of Foreign Language, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, Zigong city, Sichuan Province, China. *Corresponding Author: Fan Mengxun, Department of Foreign Language, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, Zigong city, Sichuan Province, China. Abstract: Language should be used to learn is one of the research scope of pragmatics, in terms with science, the pragmatic comparative study between different language is a kind of commonly used research techniques. Context is one of the core concepts of pragmatics. Interpersonal communication depends on specific context, context directly affects the people to the use of words and reason. The appropriateness of some specific speech ACTS must be judged according to the context in which they are used. People have social attributes, and their lives are restricted and regulated by the society. People in social activities, often will encounter many sensitive issues, or embarrassing situation of difficult, this is taboo. It is like a free form the yoke of bondage in people's language and behavior. In the process of language communication, taboo people say or write some words or words, is a taboo language; Words that are forbidden or taboo to say or write are taboo words. Taboos are a reflection of human society and culture. As an inseparable part of language, taboos can be studied by pragmatics, that is, by comparing the taboos between different languages and understanding and expressing them in specific contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger
    Purity and Danger This remarkable book, which is written in a very graceful, lucid and polemical style, is a symbolic interpretation of the rules of purity and pollution. Mary Douglas shows that to examine what is considered as unclean in any culture is to take a looking-glass approach to the ordered patterning which that culture strives to establish. Such an approach affords a universal understanding of the rules of purity which applies equally to secular and religious life and equally to primitive and modern societies. MARY DOUGLAS Purity and Danger AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPTS OF POLLUTION AND TABOO LONDON AND NEW YORK First published in 1966 ARK Edition 1984 ARK PAPERBACKS is an imprint of Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 1966 Mary Douglas 1966 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-415-06608-5 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-12938-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17578-6 (Glassbook Format) Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1.
    [Show full text]
  • A Note on the Incest Taboo: the Case of the Matrilineal Khasis
    IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 22, Issue 5, Ver. I (May 2017) PP 41-46 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org A Note on the Incest Taboo: The Case of the Matrilineal Khasis Davina Diengdoh Ropmay (Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India) Abstract : Incest Taboo serves as one important aspect under kinship studies. Understanding the rules prohibiting intimate and sexual relations with certain kin throws light on how other facets of a social organisation operate such as marriage, clan organisation and kinship terminology. The existence of the Incest Taboo among the Khasi, a major matrilineal tribal group of Meghalaya, provides us a picture on how such facets are determined. Therefore, this article attempts to describe the bounds of the incest taboo among the Khasis and the serious implication it has towards the maintenance and perpetuation of the society as a whole Keywords: Incest, Exogamy, Incest Taboo, Marriage, Khasi. I. INTRODUCTION The study of Kinship has been a much researched area in sociological and social anthropological studies. It simply seeks to understand on one hand, in what way a person is related to another, and on the other hand, in what way do these people exhibit behaviour with each other as per their relationship. Radcliffe-Brown rightly puts it “A kinship system thus presents to us a complex set of norms, of usages, of patterns of behaviour between kindred” (Radcliffe-Brown 1950: 10). Behaviour patterns which stem out of the social relations between people, customs, norms and usages are important for the functioning of the social machinery.
    [Show full text]
  • The Golden Bough (Vol. 1 of 2) by James George Frazer
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Bough (Vol. 1 of 2) by James George Frazer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license Title: The Golden Bough (Vol. 1 of 2) Author: James George Frazer Release Date: October 16, 2012 [Ebook 41082] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN BOUGH (VOL. 1 OF 2)*** The Golden Bough A Study in Comparative Religion By James George Frazer, M.A. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge In Two Volumes. Vol. I. New York and London MacMillan and Co. 1894 Contents Dedication. .2 Preface. .3 Chapter I. The King Of The Wood. .8 § 1.—The Arician Grove. .8 § 2.—Primitive man and the supernatural. 13 § 3.—Incarnate gods. 35 § 4.—Tree-worship. 57 § 5.—Tree-worship in antiquity. 96 Chapter II. The Perils Of The Soul. 105 § 1.—Royal and priestly taboos. 105 § 2.—The nature of the soul. 115 § 3.—Royal and priestly taboos (continued). 141 Chapter III. Killing The God. 198 § 1.—Killing the divine king. 198 § 2.—Killing the tree-spirit. 221 § 3.—Carrying out Death. 233 § 4.—Adonis. 255 § 5.—Attis. 271 § 6.—Osiris. 276 § 7.—Dionysus. 295 § 8.—Demeter and Proserpine. 304 § 9.—Lityerses. 334 Footnotes . 377 [Transcriber's Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter at Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.] [v] Dedication.
    [Show full text]
  • Mile Durkheim Between Gabriel Tarde and Arnold Van Gennep: Founding
    BJØRN THOMASSEN Emile´ Durkheim between Gabriel Tarde and Arnold van Gennep: founding moments of sociology and anthropology This article will situate Durkheim’s work by revisiting two debates that influenced his attempt to define and give direction to sociology and anthropology: the debates between Durkheim and Gabriel Tarde and the debates between Durkheim and Arnold van Gennep. The battle between Tarde and Durkheim has in recent years been the object of several conferences and publications. This has happened alongside a much needed Tarde revival in sociology. However, Tarde was only one of Durkheim’s opponents. For a long period, following Tarde’s death in 1904, Arnold van Gennep represented the strongest critique of Durkheim’s project. This ‘debate’ is little known among anthropologists and social scientists. The aim of this article is to situate Durkheim and the birth of the social sciences in France between both of these two figures. The aim is therefore also to bring together two disciplinary debates that for too long have been kept artificially separate in our understanding of Durkheim as ‘founding father’ of both anthropology and sociology. Arnold van Gennep and Gabriel Tarde opposed Durkheim independently from the perspectives of anthropology and sociology, but also from what can be reconstructed as a shared ‘philosophy’ of relevance still today. The article will discuss how so, and will highlight the convergences between the critiques of Durkheim offered by Tarde and van Gennep. Key words anthropological theory, Arnold van Gennep,
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of Social Taboos on Socialization of Students: Evidence from a Developing Country
    ISSN 2039-2117 (online) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol 6 No 2 ISSN 2039-9340 (print) MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy March 2015 The Influence of Social Taboos on Socialization of Students: Evidence from a Developing Country Iqbal Ahmad Universiti Teknologi Malaysia [email protected] Hamdan Said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia [email protected] Syed Shafeq Syed Mansor Universiti Teknologi Malaysia [email protected] Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p514 Abstract There is evidence that students in Pakistani schools face many problems due to rigid social structure and strict formalisation of roles and rules. This situation is broadly supported by the social norm which compels students to compromise on their broad social development and thus many students lose their individual identity or freedom. This paper examines the effect of social taboos on socialization of students at secondary school level in Pakistan. Previous literature on the effects of social taboos on socialization of students in Pakistani society is scanty. This paper contributes to existing literature by inquiring the perceptions of teachers about the influence of two dimensions of social development: specific socialization and general socialization of students. For data collection, a self-created survey questionnaire was administered to 300 randomly selected secondary school teachers from district Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. For data analysis, linear regression analysis was employed. Findings of the study revealed a significant negative correlation between social taboos and socialization of students and its two dimensions: specific socialisation and general socialisation. On the basis of the results, the study concludes that social taboos are negative predictors of socialization of students.
    [Show full text]
  • Totem, Taboo and the Concept of Law: Myth in Hart and Freud Jeanne L
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship Washington University Jurisprudence Review Volume 1 | Issue 1 2009 Totem, Taboo and the Concept of Law: Myth in Hart and Freud Jeanne L. Schroeder Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence Part of the Jurisprudence Commons Recommended Citation Jeanne L. Schroeder, Totem, Taboo and the Concept of Law: Myth in Hart and Freud, 1 Wash. U. Jur. Rev. 139 (2009). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence/vol1/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Jurisprudence Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Totem, Taboo and the Concept of Law: Myth in Hart and Freud Jeanne L. Schroeder* A startling aspect of H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law1 is just how profoundly it rests on imaginary anthropology. Hart suggests that the development of “secondary” rules of change, recognition, and adjudication to supplement “primary,” or substantive, rules of law is the process by which primitive societies evolve into modern ones. In fact, like the writers of Genesis, Hart actually modulates between two unconnected creation stories. According to one, the rule of law is created after the death of a conqueror, Rex I, to insure the succession of his idiot son, Rex II. In a second story, primitive society loses its direct relationship with primary laws and develops the secondary rules.
    [Show full text]
  • James Frazer, HG Wells, and the Intersection of Anthropology And
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2014 Taboos and Primitivism: James Frazer, H.G. Wells, and the Intersection of Anthropology and Science Fiction Eleanor L. Riesenberg College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Riesenberg, Eleanor L., "Taboos and Primitivism: James Frazer, H.G. Wells, and the Intersection of Anthropology and Science Fiction" (2014). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 104. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/104 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Taboos and Primitivism: James Frazer, H.G. Wells, and the Intersection of Anthropology and Science Fiction A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English from The College of William and Mary by Eleanor Riesenberg Accepted for ___________________________________ (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) ________________________________________ Melanie Dawson, Director ________________________________________ Christy Burns ________________________________________ Mary Melfi ________________________________________ William Fisher Williamsburg, VA April 11, 2014 2 In the following excerpt from H.G. Wells’s four volume historical narrative, The Outline of History (1919), Wells observes a ritual sacrifice through multiple lenses, demonstrating how an anthropological perspective can convey to the reader a sense of objectivity: Away beyond the dawn of history, 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, one thinks of the Wiltshire uplands in the twilight of a midsummer day’s morning.
    [Show full text]
  • Structure and Function in Primitive Society, Essays and Addresses;
    STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY Essays and Addresses by A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN PROFESSOR ElOERITUS OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY With a Foreword by E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, OXFORD UNIVERSITY and FRED EGGAN PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY, CHICAGO UNIVERSITY THE FREE PRESS GLENCOE, ILLINOIS 1952 : Acknowledgment for permission to print the essays and addresses in this volume is hereby made to the following The South African Association for the Advancement of Science, the Iowa Law Review, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the International African Institute, the Fourth Pacific Science Congress, the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, the American Anthropological Association and the Macmillan Co., New York. COPYRIGHT PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS ABERDEEN FOREWORD PROFESSOR Radcliffe-Brown has never had much regard for what he calls ' the odd things that I have written ' from time to time ; his major interest has been in conveying ideas directly to students and colleagues by personal contacts. In this he has been eminently successful. He has taught social an- thropology at Cambridge, London, Birmingham, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Sydney, Yenching, Oxford, Sao Paulo, Alexandria and Grahamstown, and in each of these places he is remembered with affection and respect. The indebtedness of his students has been shown in two collections of essays—one American and one English—w-ritten in his honour. And there has hardly been a book or article on social anthropology published during the last quarter of a century which does not illustrate, directly or indirectly, his teaching. An examination of the essays in this volume will suggest that his writings have been just as influential as his personal contacts.
    [Show full text]
  • Taboo Mary Douglas
    Taboo Mary Douglas Dne ofthe most dificult tasks anthropologists face in A TABOO (SOMETIMES SPELLED TABU) IS A BAN OR their study of non- Western cultures is isolating the prohibition; the word comes from the Polynesian bases for rules of right conduct. In thefollnunng languages where it means a religious restriction, article, Mary Douglas succinctly demonstrates that to break which would entail some automatic pun- unlike modem industrialized nations, which have ishment. As it is used in English, taboo has little to shared common experiences for centuries, primitive do with religion. In essence it generally implies a cultures have remained separated by distance and rule which has no meaning, or one which cannot [nnguage and have developed unique worldviews. be explained. Captain Cook noted in his log-book Pointing out, for example, that Westerners'sqaration that in Tahiti the women were never allowed to of the natural and the supernatural is peculiar to us, eat with the men, and as the men nevertheless en- Douglas explains how our reality and, therefore, our joyed female company he asked the reason for taboos are so diffment from thoseof the non-Westem this taboo. They always replied that they ob- world. served it because it was right. To the outsider the Douglas's functional analysis uf taboos shows taboo is irrational, to the believer its rightness that they underpin social structure euerywhere. needs no explaining. Though supernatural pun- Anthropologirts, studying tabws over extensive ishments may not be expected to follow, the ales periods of time, have learned that tabm systems are of any religion rate as taboos to outsiders.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Primitive': Franz Steiner's Taboo
    JASO 27/3 (1996): 197-215 THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AS THE 'PRIMITIVE': FRANZ STEINER'S TABOO MICHAEL MACK F~ANZ Baermann Steiner (1909-1952) was one of the many Jewish immigrants from the continent who greatly enriched English intellectual life around the time of the last war. Unfortunately he is now quite forgotten. Most of his work is still unpublished: his thesis on slavery, his lectures on the definition of labour, and many volumes of aphoristic essays on the sociology of religion have been awaiting publication for forty-five years. I Steiner's life was short, tragic, and intense. He was a poet as weiI as an anthropologist, and developed his anthropological thought also in his literary writings. His health suffered from the psychological and financial strains he had to endure as a refugee. His parents were murdered by the Nazis, and following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he received no financial support from home. Steiner was a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1930), the German University at Prague where he took his first Ph.D. in Semitic languages, and at the ethnological department of the University of Vienna before he went to London to do research at the British Museum. In London, Malinowski invited him to attend his seminars at the London School of Economics. In 1937, he undertook field studies in the Carpathians. As a refugee he continued with his research at Oxford, where he was supervised first by Radcliffe-Brown and then by Evans- 1. An edited version of the lectures on labour was in fact published as an article by Paul Bohannan (Steiner 1957), and republished in Bryant (ed.) 1972, but they deserve unabridged publication in book form.
    [Show full text]