Victor Turner and Anthropology: A Detailed Report on Rites of Passage

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Victor Turner's significant contributions to the field of anthropology, particularly his work on rituals and rites of passage. It begins with an introduction to Turner's definition of rituals and his understanding of the three stages of transition as defined by Van Gennep. The report then delves into Turner's key concept of liminality, the transitional period in a rite of passage, and explores both its positive and negative aspects. Real-world examples, such as the Ndebele birth ritual, are used to illustrate the application of Turner's and Van Gennep's frameworks. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding rituals as building blocks of society and highlights the value of Turner's research in cultural dynamics. The report examines the complexities of rituals, societal structures, and the impact of transition on individuals and communities.

01 Victor Turner
(Anthropology)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Description of the reading....................................................................................................3
Discussion of the reading.....................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In the complex modern societal structures and frameworks in which people lead their lives
within the cycle of life and death, there are many important life altering events in which they
undergo the process of transition (Blakey, 2021). This can range from major events such as
undergoing age related changes such as passing from boyhood to the cusp of adulthood to simply
joining a new society or a cult which all have varying codes of conduct and initiation rituals.
This report will highlight the important literary contribution of Victor Turner in the field of ritual
study and anthropology while also undertaking critical analysis of various rites of passages
occurring in life all around the globe (Kreps, 2019). This report will also highlight the concepts
displayed by Victor Tuner and other eminent authors and researches to real life rituals which
signal transitions such as the Christian Baptism which is a major religion based ritual observed
by people the world over (Marcus, 2021).
MAIN BODY
Description of the reading
Victor Turner (18th December, 1893 to 28th May, 1920) was one of the most important
cultural figures and one of the most renowned British cultural anthropologist who is famous till
this day for defining rituals and rites of passages along with the various stages involved in such
rituals and his work on the symbols which are often used in such rituals and rites are also studied
and admired till this day (Mahmud, 2021). One of the most major contributions of Turner to the
field of anthropology is his definition of rituals. He described rituals as being the backbone of
societal culture which involves stereotypical and sequenced structure of activities which involve
various elements such as signs, symbols and exercise which are performed in a sequestered space

and are designed for the achievement or initiation of a particular person in one aspect of society
bad around their personal goals and interests (Schulze, 2020). Victor was also highly influenced
by the research of Van Gennep in the field of ritual anthropology and also stated his concept of
three stages being primarily identifiable in the course of rites of passage as being the backbone of
various concepts stated by him later in his life (Christensen, Passalacqua, and Bartelink,2019).
According to Van Gennep, there were three main stages of transition which were part of
most rituals across societies, the first being separation which involved the leaving behind of
one’s current state along with all their mental and physical baggage, margin which is the middle
period of transition and the final stage being that of aggregation in which people are fully
accustomed to their new stage (Coleman and Collins, 2020). According to Turner there is a clear
relation between these rites of passage and the way in which broad societal behaviour in
encouraged in a civil context (Davies, 2020). He came up with his own theories and concepts by
focusing on the stage of liminality which is one of the most important periods of any ritualistic
cycle and refers on the period of transitional limbo in which the subject in question is the
equivalent of societal nothingness as they are neither the part of their past nor are they part of the
future self in post transitional periods (Douglas‐Jones, Walford, and Seaver, 2021). Turner
argued that in these periods of transition where one is neither a part of his past initiation and is
on his way to become part of another is very disambigious and many cultures around the world
associate this period of various forms of artistic practices and religious customs. Examples of
such practices can be seen in the African cultures wherein tattoos, body piercing and even
physical torture is part of initiation and liminality and some cultures even take into account
extreme practices such as the Omaha boys whose adolescents are subjected to open wilderness to
transition into adults which might seem cruel but is a cultural tradition and building block of
their lives (Edwards, 2021).
Victor Turner has also been very critical of the stage of liminality throughout his
academic career and based on the research conducted by him over the course of his life, the
majority of which he dedicated to the study of anthropology, he has cited both positive and
negative aspects of this stage of limbo (Horst and Miller, 2020). One of the major negatives
which he laid emphasis on was the fact that during the phase of liminality, the individual in
question undergoes a life crisis moment as the crux of their entire social and cultural identity
disappears for a brief moment of time during the middle period of transition in any ritual (Finn,

2021). This results in fear, confusion and in some cases exploitation of individuals (Winkler and
Kristensen, 2021). Another major drawback of this stage which has been stated by Victor is that
neophytes or people undergoing a transition period are often made to completely submit to the
masters which are in charge of preparing them for the post transitional phase and in many
cultures, the neophytes are made to undergo tough regimes and activities (Kearney, 2018).
Victor did not only have negative things to say about this stage as he also mentioned
some positives such as the existence of a common social structure which is free from all kinds of
societal and material bias between an instructor and their neophytes which is also observed in
modern societies. He also went on to describe the major positive of such limbo inducing cycles
to be the value of new growth and formation of new social identities in which people grow in
both, a physical and mental manner (Gibbs Jr, 2020). The overall concepts and theories which
were stated by Victor were quite comprehensive and helps establish a clear understanding of the
social strata within rites of passages around the world (Koch, 2018).
Discussion of the reading
The concepts and techniques which were described by Van Gennep and later expanded
upon by Victor Turner can be applied on real world events and rituals very nicely as the
framework developed by them helps classify events in their stated three phases of separation,
liminality and aggregation (Ottenheimer and Pine, 2018). One of the major examples of this
framework being used to observe an event is the birth ritual observed by the Ndebele speaking
people of Zimbabwe and the classification of this ritual based on three stages given by Van
Gennep and Turner is listed herein (Kim, 2019)
 Separation – Women leave their husbands during the ninth month of their pregnancy and
travel to their parent’s home and their room is polished with cow dung with men
forbidden to enter the room
 Liminal – This phase begins when time for birth approaches in which women assist in
childbirth, hands are washed in herbs suggested by local healers and after the delivery,
the child’s umbilical cord is cut and they are blessed with special tribal herbs (Ndlovu,
2020)
 Aggregation – This phase involves the baby being given a name and the father being
given a piece of the umbilical cord to bury and ask ancestors to take care of their child.

After this ritual completes, the couple is welcomed back in the society as the newly made
father and mother of a child (Sahlins, 2022)
CONCLUSION
The above report went into detail regarding the complex processes involved in the
classification and analysis of rituals in the field of anthropology and highlighted the important
concepts and theorems stated by Van Gennep and Victor Turner in particular. The report studied
the teachings and research imparted by Turner wherein he focused on the stage of liminality in
the cycle derived by Van Gennep and made key breakthroughs in this avenue wherein he state
both positive and negative sides of mid transition periods for individuals undergoing a rite of
passage. The report also connected the stages of rites of passage to real life rituals such as
Ndebele birth rituals and it was concluded that rituals are societal building blocks that must be
researched quite extensively to understand cultural dynamics.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Christensen, A.M., Passalacqua, N.V. and Bartelink, E.J., 2019. Forensic anthropology: current
methods and practice. Academic Press.
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anthropology. Routledge.
Davies, D.J., 2020. Anthropology and theology. Routledge.
Douglas‐Jones, R., Walford, A. and Seaver, N., 2021. Introduction: Towards an anthropology of
data. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 27(S1), pp.9-25.
Edwards, E., 2021. Raw histories: photographs, anthropology and museums. Routledge.
Finn, E., 2021. Losing liminality: Turner’s theory of transition in the funerary archaeology of
Prepalatial Crete. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 63, p.101291.
Gibbs Jr, R.W., 2020. Embodied imagination in rites of passage: a comment on Wiseman 2019.
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Koch, I.L., 2018. Personalizing the state: an anthropology of law, politics, and welfare in
austerity Britain. Oxford University Press.
Kreps, C.F., 2019. Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement. Routledge.
Mahmud, L., 2021. Feminism in the House of Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology,
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Marcus, G.E., 2021. Introduction: anthropology on the move. In Ethnography through thick and
thin (pp. 1-30). Princeton University Press.
Ndlovu, S., 2020. Material culture in Southern Ndebele identity making in post-apartheid South
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Ottenheimer, H.J. and Pine, J.M., 2018. The anthropology of language: an introduction to
linguistic anthropology. Cengage Learning.
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Schulze, H. ed., 2020. The Bloomsbury handbook of the anthropology of sound. Bloomsbury
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