Liminality

Liminality is a term coined by the ethnologist Victor Turner . It describes a threshold state in which individuals or groups find themselves after they have ritually detached themselves from the prevailing social order. Referring to Arnold van Gennep, Turner distinguishes three phases in the rites of passage : the separation, the threshold and the affiliation phase. Liminality is in the second phase, the threshold state. Examples are the initiation rites of archaic societies or revolutions of industrialized or modern societies. During the liminal phase, individuals are in an ambiguous state. The classification system of the (everyday) social structure is abolished. Individuals have neither properties of their previous state nor those of the future - they are "betwixt and between".

In the case of the classic initiation rite, passers-by are no longer children during the liminal phase, but neither are they adults. In Western cultures, in which powerful initiation rites of this kind often no longer exist, adolescents in puberty and adolescence can sometimes experience themselves trapped in a liminal phase (coming of age) , as can young adults in the transition period after completing their studies (so-called academic precariat ). In contrast to classic initiation rites, which are usually subject to a certain degree of secrecy, these transition times are heavily thematized and discussed publicly in modern times (e.g. in Bildungsroman and other coming-of-age narratives ).

Turner also used the term liminoid to distinguish between an inevitable liminal phenomenon (e.g. puberty ) and the voluntary (e.g. attending a rock concert). While the liminal is part of society, the liminoid is a break from the shackles of society. While walking can lead to liminality in the days when this was the essential means of transport (cf. Canterbury Tales ), hiking is liminoid today because it is done voluntarily.

literature

Victor W. Turner : Betwixt and Between. The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage. In: June Helm (Ed.): Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion. Proceedings of the 1964 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Association (= Proceedings of the Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society. University of Washington Press, Seattle WA 1964 ISSN 0731-4108 ) pp. 4-20
Victor W. Turner: Liminality and Communitas. In: Andréa Belliger, David J. Krieger (Ed.): Theories of ritual. An introductory manual. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1998 ISBN 3-531-13238-5 pp. 251-264

Web links

In-Between: Liminal Spaces in Canadian Literature and Culture . Liminal Spaces in Canadian Literature and Culture (in English). Conference University of Graz 2016, academic invitation

Individual evidence

↑ Arnd Krüger : History of hiking. In: Axel Dreyer , Anne Menzel, Martin Endreß: hiking tourism. Customer groups, destination marketing, health aspects. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-58810-1 , pp. 15-21.

[1] Arnd Krüger : History of hiking. In: Axel Dreyer , Anne Menzel, Martin Endreß: hiking tourism. Customer groups, destination marketing, health aspects. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-58810-1 , pp. 15-21.