Introduction: Liminality: Structure/Anti-Structure and Egalitarian Dynamics
Bruce Kapferer

Part I: Liminality and Ethnography

Chapter 1. The Pivoting of the Sacred: Arnold Van Gennep's Patio-Temporality of the Liminal
Bjorn Thomassen

Chapter 2. The Parable of the Foot Bridge: Creativity and Change in the In-Between
Paul Stoller

Chapter 3. Searching for My Brother: Liminality and Blood Brotherhood in Rwanda
Christopher C. Taylor

Chapter 4. The Rigours of the Liminal: Effecting the Real in Theatrical Labour
Daniel Scherer and Martin Holbraad

Chapter 5. Sacrifice, Sovereignty and the Dynamics of Structure and Anti-Structure
Rohan Bastin

Part II: Multiple Meanings of Communitas

Chapter 6. Communitas and Practice in the Baltimore Rhythm Festival
Rory Turner

Chapter 7. Insight Meditation: Liminality Without Excitement
Ward Keeler

Chapter 8. The Unbearable Weight of Music: The Intermezzo
Steven M. Friedson

Part III: Liminoid Spaces and the Politics of Liminality

Chapter 9. Mahishi’s Rage: Communitas and Protest at Sabarimala, Kerala
Dinesan Vadakkiniyil

Chapter 10. Weaving Value in the Liminal Space of the Istanbul Bazaar
Patricia Scalco

Chapter 11. Vicissitudes of Liminality in Complex Performance Systems
John MacAloon

Chapter 12. France and its Purgatory
Andre Iteanu

Chapter 13. Liminality and Communitas: The Making of Refugees in Switzerland
Marina Gold

Chapter 14. Open Access and the Subjunctive Mood in Scholarly Publishing
Kirsten Bell

Chapter 15. How Book Haram's 'Liminal' Child Witches and Child Soldiers Challenge the Capitalist State
Caroline Ifeka

Chapter 16. Immanence and Process: Between 1984 and Brave New World, The Trump Transmutation
Bruce Kapferer and Roland Kapferer

Part IV: Extensions

Chapter 17. Finding Likeness: Neural Plasticity and Ritual Experience
Robert Turner

Afterword: Liminality - Contemplating the Hypothetically Potent Conjunction of the Social and the Physical
Don Handelman

References
Index

Egalitarian Dynamics

Liminality, and Victor Turner’s Contribution to the Understanding of Socio-historical Process

Edited by Bruce Kapferer and Marina Gold

Afterword by Don Handelman

408 pages, 15 ills., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-80539-588-1 Hb Published (July 2024)

Details

“This is a very rich collection combining theoretical relevance with a wide spectrum of empirical material. The reader is taken on a fascinating journey including themes that range from blood brotherhood rituals in Rwanda to the symbolic power of Olympic games as complex performance systems, from the ambivalence of music intermezzos in Africa and America to the brave new world of the US in a post-capitol uprising world.” • Harald Wydra, University of Cambridge

“This is an outstanding and magisterial treatment of the work of Victor Turner on liminality and ritual, structure and communitas (or anti-structure) and of his theory’s past and present significance and indeed of its future potential.” • Donald Nonini, University of North Carolina

Liminality: the state of being ‘betwixt and between’ is one of anthropology’s most influential concepts. This volume reconsiders Victor Turner’s innovative extension of Arnold Van Gennep’s concept of liminality from within the Manchester tradition of Social Anthropology established by Max Gluckman. Turner’s work was grounded in ethnography and engaged with philosophical perspectives in varied socio-historical contexts, extending well-beyond the confines of the anthropology that initially inspired much of his work. Liminality has therefore become a concept with broad interdisciplinary reach. Engaging with topical issues across the globe – from neuroscience to open access publishing and refugee experiences in Europe – this volume launches Turner’s fundamental work into the future.

Bruce Kapferer is Honorary Professor University College London and Professor Emeritus, University of Bergen, where he is Director of the project Egalitarianism: Forms, Processes, Comparisons, which is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant. His recent publications include Democracy’s Paradox: Populism and its Contemporary Crisis, co-edited with Dimitrios Theodossopoulos (Berghahn Books, 2019).

Marina Gold is an Associated Researcher at the University of Zurich. Her recent publications include People and State in Socialist Cuba: Ideas and Practices of Revolution (Palgrave, 2015) and a critical review of the moral turn in anthropology, Moral Anthropology: A Critique, co-edited with Bruce Kapferer (2018, Berghahn Books).

Series: Volume 2, Egalitarianism

Subject: Theory and Methodology Anthropology (General)

Area:

LC: HM487 .E43 2024

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC026040 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Sociology/Social Theory; BIO021000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/Social Scientists & Psychologists

available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) with support from University of Bergen.

berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

Egalitarian Dynamics

Liminality, and Victor Turner’s Contribution to the Understanding of Socio-historical Process

Edited by Bruce Kapferer and Marina Gold

Afterword by Don Handelman

Series: Volume 2, Egalitarianism

Subject: Theory and Methodology Anthropology (General)

Area:

This title is published as Open Access

Full Text PDF | Full Text ePUB Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license with support from University of Bergen.

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Contents

Egalitarian Dynamics

Liminality, and Victor Turner’s Contribution to the Understanding of Socio-historical Process

Edited by Bruce Kapferer and Marina Gold

Afterword by Don Handelman

Series: Volume 2, Egalitarianism

Subject: Theory and Methodology Anthropology (General)

Area:

This title is published as Open Access

Full Text PDF | Full Text ePUB Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license with support from University of Bergen.