THE LEWIS HENRY MORGAN LECTURES|1966 presented at ivesity of Rochester The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Strufture . Victor W. \Turner University of Chicago | Aldine Publishing Company Chicago1 Planes of Classification in a Ritual of Life and Death 4 MORGAN AND RELIGION yy others, Lewis Henry taking to deliver the Morgan conscious of one profound, and tage. Morgan, though he f monies, had a marked dilyses S. Gre ions of Handsome Lake's grandson's Good Message recitals to Deardorff, “Morgan followed Ely’s jon, the prophet’s ‘grandson, s §tsceremonialaceampaniment” (p-981. Seealso “Phe correspondence between Morgan and Parks 0 Ely, he might have avoided the gens ‘made by Seneca who read ‘Phere’s nothing actually wrong in what he says, ly see Hiemselves in the re ofa mind different hardy work, especially when we are dealing with such difficult Planes of Classification subjects as primitive magic and religion, in whi to add as 2 proviso her are no “simpler”” peoples, only some peoples with simples than our own. Man's “imaginative” and “emotion rich and complex. Just how rich and com- plex the symbolism of to show, Nor is yychology, on the one |, and of profes ological field work, on the other, products of what Morgan called ‘‘the imaginative and emo- tional aature” have come spect and attention Spencer; Durkheim, and Max Weber to make Anthropologi owski and Radeliffe-Brown, Griaulle and Dieterlen, and a host of their coevals and , have labored mightily in the vineyard of preliterate ritual, making meticulous and exacting observations of| Inundreds of performances and recording vernacular texts of myths loving care,The Ritual Process causes of the most ting types, den jem any preterhuman igin but none of them has der us belief and practices, for endeavor, as far as pe -al investigation of aspects of re of, stand Mongan'scasal challenge to pstrity, and demonstrate tha modern anthropalo ih the host of the éoneeptual a ‘Phenomena of religion in prferaewciel RITUAL STUDIES IN CENTRAL AFRICA a close look at sotne situa performed by the people among whom I did two and a half year” field work, he Réembu of northwestern Zambia, Like Morgan's Iroquois, the (Nii ace matsilincal and combine hoe agsiulture with hunt sehich health hgh ial vlie, The Neeru belong to 4 Planes of Clasfaton js‘of situations i such a way that the policy more clearly Me forces’ with whi igftone Papers—short_monogtaphs “on aspects of CentralThe Ritual Process African tribal life—only four have made ritual their main topie, two ‘of them by the present author. ly, Morgan’s |, has pertinently written: reveal values heir deepest level ....men express in rituall what moves them ra and since the form of exprt belief and practices are someth sas or expressions of economic, + rather are they coming to be decisive keys to .ow people think and feel about those relax we natural and social environments in which NARY FIELD WORK ON NDEMBU RITUAL term Max Planes of Classification the reluctance 1 felt at first to collect rieual data, For the fi T amassed considerable qui T made village uteplans prowled around to catch the rate I uneasily that T was assays on looking in, even when T became comfortable in my use ly aware of the thadding af yy of my camp, and the people 1 ke days at atime attending Webwang's, and Wabind. ‘what even a segment of ve to overcome my prejudice against stylized gestures and singing the eryptic songs rmances and quite another to reach an adequate under- a to them, To obtain lighteament, Thad recourse at fi gs by afficers of the regs, such as messengers and clerks. At: provided satisfactory explanations of the long, compl My next move wi a series of interviews with an excep tignally capable chief, entitled Ikelenge, who had a sound knowledgeThe Ritual Process Chief Tkelenge at once grasped what I wanted and gave inventory of the names ofthe principal Ndembu rituals, with 1 discovered that I system and were perfectly prepa their beliefs to several features of Ndembu: Jmportance of contempor jes that emerged from the analysis of nd census sroperty, became fully intel camp from the ‘There, in tine, my faanily came to be accepted as more or ned to the importance wife and I began to perceive 1d previously been invisible Planes of Classification 9 to us because of our theoretical blinkers. As Nadel has said, facts change with theories and new facts make new theories. iby of Afr he effect snakes, Since many of fire pesformed for the sick, and since European medicines are regarded as having efficacy: of nd as their own though greater in colleagues and10 The Ritual Process Most Ndembu, both men and women, association, and it was hard to find an elderly person who was secret knowledge of mor ture, expressed of the characte: me, we never asked for a ritual to be performed solely Id no brief for such attificial of spontaneous perform a given day which of two or became increasingly a part of the village scene, we discovere to perform ritual were connected with crises in lages. T have written elsewhere at some length con the social dynamies of ritual performances and do not intend to give them more than passing mention in these lectures. Here I merely hat among the Ndembu in with particulars a a yy confidence at every step along this road. Tam now going to look closely at a kind of ritual which I observed on Planes of Classification 1 three occasions and for which I have a considerable quantity of crave the reader's indulgence for the fact n other Bant dependent The Loma (or Tubwiza) recagnived as such by Néembu, knowg.as." gagement” or an .der an obligation to venerate the ances a say, “are they not the ones who. have begotten you?” The rituals’I am speaking of are in fact petformed because persons or corporate groups have failed to meet this obliga bbe apprapriate to, jate to women consists 's reproductive capaci= B ‘The Ritual Process ‘and lovely children” (to translate an Ndembu expres ‘Trobriand Islanders, that rarriage should go to reside in the vil and other matrikin on reaching adolescence. One consequence of marriage becomes an arena of covert 's husband and her brothers and mot | brothers over the residential affiliation of her children. Since there is ‘also a close bond between a woman and her children, this usually ‘means that after a short or long period a woman will follow her lage of matrilineal allliation, My figures on te that the tribal ratios are the highest among their matrikin on divorce—and a for in a very real sense , depends upon marital discon residing with her husband with her young child 1g the valid norm that a woman should please. she is not fulfilling an equal Jldren to the contemporaneous membership of her mats i * ‘women with reproductive disorders, resulting in temporary barren= ‘Planes of Classification 13 35. Most of these ‘age. The condition of barrenness these shacies bring about is consid- ‘ered to be a temporary one, to be removed by performance of the appropriate rites. Once af shade, and thus hér primary alleg@ince to mat on hex fertility will cease; she can go'on living but with a sharpened awareness lof where her and her child ate loyalties lie. The crisis brought on by this between norms is resolved by ich in symbolism and preg rant with meaning. ye eget Thoma shares with the other wornen’s cults & common diachranie profile or procesual form, In each & woman siffer from gynecol hustand or a tatrikinnan secke the precise mode of affction in sayy has “com oat ofthe grave to mode; the hnsband or finsman Dependent upba doctor (chimbs an procedure for appe master of ceremonies for summons other doctors to help have undergone exposure to the same kind of “knows the medicinés” and theThe Ritual Process We termed “a community of sueing"™ar, rather, of omer a eee ie [patient Membership ofa eal such a oma tacos eh tial for members ofthe elturally and Sees ares tsedeptnrandassuch opeformsitual aha, The" senior” hhave the tripartite diachronic stru familiar tous by the work of van Gennep. The first phase, called Ilenbi, separates the candidate from the profane world; the second, called ly secludes her from ing theremoval ofthe shades sma to normal life. In Isom this iss bearing a child and rais So much for the broad social desire to penetrate the inner ritual, we have to understand hi its syinbols. My method is perforce the reverse of begin at the other end, wi cules,” of ritual. These I shal shall eschew’ involvement in the long debate on. the difference be- Planes of Classification tween such concepts assy approach is from the “inside” perspective, into the Néembw usage. Inan Néembu reyal context, almost every article used, every gev} ture employed, every song or prayer, every unit of space and time, by convention stands for something other than it seems, and often a good deal more. The Ndembu are aware of th expressive or symbolic function of 1 ofthe landscape, suchas es one mats gardens or one chit ‘Th, ie wo main signfeatons Aunts bloc it eprvens an element of conned ‘appear- ized asthe stating points of exegesis (chakulambishu). The Name “soma” At the very outset, the name Lome itself has symbolic value. My informants derive itfrom kx-somnka, “toslip out of place or as This designation as multiple reference. In the firs place,The Ritual Process Tn discussing the mean- informants mentioned the term lyfvisha Uyfaisha means both seant dying of chi after t en fe of infants. The Mask “Mueng ‘The shade that has emerged in Itoma ‘of the masked beings i masked.beings, known as makishi keep in touch with one another in the deep bush ot to summon their dogs. He is known as “grandfather” ( circumcision wounds are healed, Planes of Glassifcation "7 the lodge where the novices are sctuded inthe bush run Kato wkaka ey nia eyo eyo nkaka pete netsh, “Grandather, © Granclather, our grandather ato yey evan; cme, OF gr the gla ie ry, mb ye I atrng fal pir the lan dy ‘The song presents for Nae power, for kaka also signif ovine many ment of an auspicious ‘Mikanda civcumcison regarded as wet and Talenba spite, pei cause infants tsicken and pine. Mung tume are believed to of he isa symp] of mature mascu ‘expression—and his hunting tes further support and such isdangerous to women in their moitemininerole,thatofimoth dives them from the boys. objects and items of behavior suggests that ‘Néembu feel that the woman, in wasting her menstrual blood and in18 The Ritual Process fe ce s actively renouncing her expeeted-role.as a Teoma erselfan aflicting shade after death, and as such th oF closely conjoined hhas come toa closely in touch with the that her dead matrikin have impaired her fet is burned down after the eireum= they will be striped at with flames, of, leprosy, or, alternatively, Aims of Isoma eae ace, relations between wife and husband; and making the woman, and fipnce hc marge ed ncage as Ndembu explai chisaku. Broadly, 1 se spoken byalivingperson to arouse sahade nd may include medicines concocted to harm an encom the case of ion, the dias ofa particular ind T's belcned that 9 of the victim has gone to the souree (asuly) of a he vicinity of he village of her matvkin and there spoken suis he. The effect it must go.away (chisaku chafang’a an fie’). The choke is death, which must nat happen to the woman is sicken sulfering is fara of a witch (maleji). A person who curses ala} will go with her wherever lace, the streambsource, and she -uka) there. The shade of roma has come out as craft. Unlike othér' wome propitiatea single shade; mae be rege a tT ofthese sve grades tances cing rete and en, Men apd the ele es Teil digi heer pose in Forermorg} lagcraconsiderabetinesRernecconcerned, though they contain ure, for Ndembu, ‘compensate for this by a wealth ‘exegesis. There are no short the structure—in LévieStraus to proceed atomistically and piecemeal from fF one is properly to fellow the indigenous isonly when the symbolic path from the unknown to the known is completed that we can look back and comprehend its final form. pattern of procedure in each specific j aes Planes of Classification a From yy knowledge of other Ndembi these are hidden near the tive the reference point of orient site. The rites T am disc known if cate, beg forgiveness the notion of propi pleading on the pat the sides and other preterhuman enti back her motherhood, Tn all ilembi rites one of the fist steps is fo by the senior adept or “master of eeremoni tobe regrown into a be done 5 irseversibley ‘There is analogy but not replication, we sav supplied by the husbara2 ‘The Ritual Process \ indicated that the curse was laid. They then examine the ground care- fully for signs of giant rat’s or ant-bear’s burrow. When they find it hanks of get above the filled-in entrance to the burrow, the ather about four fect away above the tunnel made by the auianal. The clods beneath these areremoved by hoe, senior adept and his major male assistant begin to dig deep holes there, known as maksla ( looking from the and is reserved for the use of the male adept hand side,” is for the women. The senior adept of broken calabash near the first burrow-entrance he depts, led by the patient's mother if sh portions of edible roots from adept and his principal mle stant have tau uated the digging, thy hand over their host other male adept, ct exorvate the les ntl they are about four ts feet deep. The burrow entrance is nown as “the hae ofthe giant depts commence to dig toward one another until they meet about ving completed a tunnel (ikala datuhanaka). This has to through. Other adepts break Planes of Classification 23 or bend the branches of tres in a wide ring around the whole scene of ritual ac 10 create a sacred space that rapidly achieves sifucfure, Te ring something around isa persistent theme of Ndembu. ess milieu of the bush. The ting is known as chiang’, a 30 wsed forthe fence around a chief's dwelling and his smediine but, a conteotronior wepronzs ‘While the junior adepts prepare thé sacred st, the senior adept and incipal assistant go to-the adjacent bush to find medicines. “These are collected from diferent species of tees, each of which has a symbolic value“erived from the atributes and purposes of lima, . At one performanes I ate Aapuipe tee (Swartzieinadagas- wood is hard. Hardness repre- senior adept cleared the base of the tree of then put the pieces of edible tubers representing the pat her feet turned yellow [ This time make her strong, so ‘may it grow strong.” The do24 ‘The Ritual Process XN Planes of Classification 25 provides medicine for the circumcision rites, where itis thought to confer on the novices exceptional virility, In Jsuma, its use stresies fon between these rites and Mukanda, the circumcision le it is also a specific against the infirmity—and in many piece of broken calabash, After that he proceeded to cut bark chips from sixteen further species of trees.t Te would take too long (o discuss the meaning ofeach of these here, i suffice it to say that many Ndembu ean attach not merely a single | significance but in some cases (such as msli, museng'ty cases the aneynia—of the patient. A comparigon of the dominant ‘bukombu) many connotations to a single species. Some of these species rneices of these two performances shows that the same principle are used in many different ki ls * or idea éan be expoessed in different syrabols ‘Thedominantmedicine | (where, however, different types of association of the first performance, kai 0.8 strong which is often taken the forked branch that form rent of shrines set up to oie hades of hunters, ac. shrine int & the action of 3 kapenipa leaves and bark are hhave tough (hence * used hecause they I cannot refrain, however, from mentioning of zona medi patients? Here we come across another expressed in ue “to make appear, or reveal.” What is made se, inthe form of a symbol (chil fway to removing that cr See ako Turner, 1967, pP: 365-325.visible or tangible symbol i a big ep toward remedying it This not so vey fh remved from the : ice ofthe made payhoanuyat. When something is gusped b mind, made capable of being thought about , mastered. Interestingly enough, the principle of revelation ‘an Ndembu medicine-symbol used in Isoma. © (whose name is derived by informants from ‘makes them appear.” Tn hunt= ‘employment as medicine is intended to produce animals la axyama) of the hitherto unlucky hunter; make children appear’ ‘worman. As in so many eases, of this symbol a union of eco the materialization of an idea. To return collect roots and leaves from a. chikuat a species in whose therapeutic meaning etymology ance more ural characteristics. Chikwate has ” (lu-kzwata) or arrest the passer-by. but is also exemplified i ‘meena, which means + thereafter, Mupapala Planes of Classification branch or-ruit. Th cease by its applic tree} bbe higher ceigpryo inthe womb and the chil’s continued exuberant growth, inthoclesta species) is the name of the next medicine speci is any ” Behind this iden, ipping ous” is the notion that iis good and appropriate when things adhere to their proper place and when Deple do what i propriate fr them todo in her stage of ie and satus in sociey), Jn another performance oflooma, the principal medicine oF ‘was not a particular species of tree but any + whose roots were thoroughly exposed to view. Such a Another variant upon the theme of “#evelation.”” ‘Hot and Cool Medicines: Apertures of Death and Life Sometimes a portion of wood is taken from a decayed, fallen tree. ‘once more, represents the patient's muong', or diseased, alflicted condition. Equipped with this array of strengthening, fecun- y revelatory, clarilying, health-giving, affixing medicines, some{the adepts return to the sacred site where [they now complete the arrangements that give that consecrated space its visible structure, The medicine leaves and bark fragments ‘are pounded by a female adept in a consecrated meal-mortar. Then medicine is divided into two portions. One is put fa potsherd (chizanda), and is then heated on a fire that is kindled Just outside the hole dug through the entrance to the giant fo an izawu, a term that refers to either a clay pot or a medicine trough, or into a broken alabash, and this is placed by .ccotding to one informant, the holes stand for "graves (tule) ‘in othor words, for tomb and The dela (hole) of heat ‘The ikala of the giant rat (2) an enclosures fa fenced courtyard around a chiel"s dwelling and mec ring around the wee or fourThe Ritual Process Kuhandisha IKELA OF LIFE OR HEALTH Women's fire Ga \ Chisak i WITCHCRAFT ZZ. AX Red cock ros Tnedicine over fire ‘Animal's burrow (blocked) ! i ! | | 1 | | ft \ laa ura a Planes of Classification 3 Weape now besnnng se he development ofa whole of ie the pattern, a few more variables have to be fed performances I observed, the ch her, standing on the “ senior adept doctor”) swept both wife and husband vith cool and hot ‘Then his assistant took over for a while and did likewise. \ ee When the patientfirst enters the cool ikl, she is given the young white pullet to hold; during breast, where a child is hel incidentally, aré. naked except for harrow ws to represent the fact that ‘The adepts, in contrast, are clothed. ‘The mature red coc! trussed up by the feet, of the right of the in fact seen, reprecents the chisal, of the woman, The white pul pregnant. But a man gives power to women to have children who32 can be seen, who are perhaps the grudge is 1 ‘till has no children aft The Ritual Process ~ ‘ Planes of Classification 33 gain. In other Ndemt fe and stillness death: the cock is con- “eexts, movement repre secraft for slaughér. Tam CURATIVE PROCESS runs. 9. Fema: the doctor beside the calabash splashes cho patients the men stand onthe right ofthe tunnels longi-en The Ritual Process ~ in the same order, return to the cool iela, where they are again (See figure g). Then they cross once more re follows a temporary I Ihusband is escorted out of the ilafato fetch a small cloth to wipe the medicine from the faces of the couple and the body of the pullet. He resurns to the cool ikela, and after further medication, there is a rroeRe. 4. oma: the husband prepares to fllow his wile ‘une. is resumed. This time around, the husband leads the way to the hot ikela (See figure 4). They return to the cool ikea in the same order. After splashing, there is another interval for beer. Then the sequence Planes of Classification 35 are swept fcine and cold water is poured couple are splashed twenty even in the hot, a ratio of ing. goes on, the male adepis on the right a fon the left sing songs ftom the great life-crsi Mukanda, boysPlanes of Classifation 37 x accompanied by a swaying dance called Tays ite Gist eg. Told i is right ‘hand the knife with which he beheaded the cock. CLASSIFIGATORY STRUCTURE: TRIADS ‘There is enough data to attempt to analyze the structure of the rites and lethal connection; in the second, the doctor is the: mediator8 The Ritual Process while the witch may be of either sex; in the second, the pati female and her husband male. The doctor mediates between the sexes, in that he treats both, The Ndembu doctor, in fact attributes that are regarded as feminine in Ndembu cultures he can pound medicine in a meal mortar, a task normally undertaken by ‘women; and he handles women and talks to them about private ‘matters in a way that would be impermissible to men in secular roles. ‘One term for “doctor,” chimbanda, is said by Ndembu themselves to bbe connected with the term mumbanda, standing for “woman.” In both triads there are clote bonds of relationship between two of the parmers. Ta the first, of the patient in the tun movement through marriage from village to village, matrikin to spouse's kin, and back again on the death or divorce of that spouse. ‘The other structural features of th of crisscrossing binary oppositions major opposition between the ritual si is roughly similar to that made by may be arrayed in terms he first place, there is the ‘and the wild bush, which ie between “cosmos” and ee Planes of Classification 39 haos.” Thi other oppositions are best arranged in three sets in colurmnar form, a follows: ‘Myatical misforsane/ curing Naked/clothed Medina) female/male; candidates) ese sets of values transect one another, they are they saying that candidates are in a feminine ion to adepts (though they are certainly in a passive ences may be sought within each set (or column), not between them. Thus, the animal’s blocked lair-entrance is regarded as similar to the filled-in graves of people, to death, w!The Ritual Process ites, red stands for the blood exposed in p. 70]); and to “blood”? as a general is regarded, on the other hand, as having », curative procedures, coolness or cold- the white pilet—wvhich in this situa cepresnts and and by its color symbolizes (as 1967, pp- 69-70) such desirable purity, good fortune, which has much the rather than state, ‘These positive and negative qualities are suprasexual in their attribution, and I believe that it would be a mistake to equate them too narrowly with sexual differences. The latter are more closely , and the cultivated, allocated to the grave/deathJheat symbolism tion this because other writers, such as Herz, below/above dichotomy be correlated, in Ndembu culture, w sex division, The set of terms arrayed under these heads is once more Planes of Classification a sex-ttee, since, for example, the patients below and the doctors above contain membd df both sexes. Feontion ap crassitteation in girl’ pube indeed, for at and stereotyped fed according temporarily con ‘may be homo- and in yet another with meat/flour without sexual connotation. Planes of Classification between separate planes of lassifcation, It will hve been noted he opposition red cockjwhite pullt in Jsoma appears ia. al tree cokumns. In the lieeath plane, the white pllet equals ie and ferey as against the red cock, which equals death and witch= craft; in the righte® plane, the cock i maculine and th feminine; and inthe abovebelow plane, the cock is above, since i2 The Ritual Process that they posess for this may be COGNITION AND EXISTENGE IN RITUAL SYMBOLISM. conclude this chapter by relating its findings to the standpoint of é The Savage Mind. LévieSteause is ‘pensbe sewage contains proper work on symbole at factors in oo elsewhere at tome length—for instance, 1957, pp. 28-90, 54-55) The symbols and t ions as found in Zona are not only a set of cognitive class ‘ordering the Ndembu universe. They are also, and perhaps as importantly, a set of evocative devices for Planes of Classification 8 rousing Mtanneling, and domesticating powerful emotions, such al haate, fear affection, and grief. ‘They are also informed with purpos- Avveness api have a ““conative” aspect. In brief, the whole person, | ‘ot just the Ndembu “ mind," is existentially involved in the life or } deat Finally, Loma is not “ grotesg vis ludicrous pr ineongrous. Every s cit on epee mea pt the vegetable medicines clearly reveal. From the standpoint of| twentieth-century science, we may find it strange that Ndembu feel that by bringing certain objects into a_sing of conscerated space ey seem empirically {0 possess, and that by manipulating them in pres. can arrange and concentrate these powers, rather to destroy malignant forces. But, given the produce considerable psycho sion of group concern for an unfortunate coupled wit fe of ‘something merely “unintelligible3 Liminality aN and Communitas FORM AND ATTRIBUTES OF RITES OF PASSAGE is Chapter I take up a theme I have discussed briefly elsewhere ‘This theme isin the first place represented by the mature and char- acteristis of what Arnold van Gennep (1960) has called the de passage. Van Gennep To p sition,” T empl clusive concept ble or recurrent con: * or “office,” andl refers to any type that is culturally recognized. Van tes of passage or “transition” are rked by three phases: sepa threshold” in Le tion) comprises sya individual or group ' . ' Liminality and Communitas 95 js-d-vis others of a clearly defined and is expected to behave in accordance binding on incum- ness, and to an eclipse of such as neophyte jon or puberty rites, 1 pwenngnohing ‘They maybe dnb inguish them from their fellow is normally passive or humble; 1d accept arbitrary igh they are being re- 10 be fashioned anew punishment ‘duced or ground down an intense “rank and Stuy disappear or are homogenized. ‘The condition | i |96 ! The Rituat Process of the patient and her husband in Toma had some butes—passivity, humility, near-nakedness—in a symbol represented both a grave and a womb. Ia period of seclusion, such as the circumcision rites of many tribal liferation of liminal symbols. Communitas about liminal phenomena for our present pur isthe blend they offer of lowliness and sacred giving a: «tion, equality and in and Commanitas 97 we position has some sacred charact ed by the incumbents of sacred” component the rites de pasrage, of that ieansien humility and modelesiness goes over, and tempers the pride of the incumbent of a higher 1 res (1963, p. 88 1 ftamp oflegitimacy toa society Tis rather a matter of giving recognition to an essential and a] simply, as human bond, without which there could be 29 society. Li implies that the high could not be he who is high must experience wl something of this thinking, a few years ago, lay behind Prince Philip's decision to send his son, the heir apparent to the Bi throne, fo a bush school in Australia for a time, where he leara how “to rough Dialectic of the Developmental Cycle From all this T infer type of dialee@ical process that involv and low, comfic8S and | { | } | | i TurEMNOPE, Wine ay ~of multipte Ferionae, groups, ‘other words, each individual posure to structure and comm THE LIMINALITY OF AN INSTALLATION RITE One brief example from the Ndembu of Zambia of a rite de passage 1 ofthe senior chieftochthonous Mbwela people, who made submission struggle to their Landa conquerors led by the frst Kanongesha. An ‘| ight was vested in the headman named Kafwana, of the to medicate the supreme symbol of chiefly status among, lukaru bracelet, made from human gene italia and sinews and soaked in the sacrificial blood of male and ‘because he gave symbolic bith to each new incumbent ofthat office. ‘Kafana was also said to teach each new Kanongesha the medicines ‘of witcheraft, which made him feared by Naembu els, and their joms under Kanongesha; its fi 1" Liminality and Commnitas 99 it. The daily invoca sunset, were forthe f land, of its animal and veget short, for the commonweal and public good. But negative aspect; it could be used by Kanongesha to curse. If he touched the earth with it and uttered a certain formula, believed that the person or group cursed would beedme barren, their land ible, Tn the lukanu, finally, Lunda and Mbwela were united in the joint concept of Ndembu land and. folk. : In the relationship between Lunda and Mbwela, and between. Kanongesha and Kafwana, we find a distinetion familiar in Aftica trong and the subdued autoch- le and their game in Tale, portrayed respe sab conide Spe dichotomy many Ue world-wide. The poi structural” or synchronic inf and social categories in politica ‘ of certain personae, legal, and economic |100 \ The Ritual Process = The “liminal” and the sites of the Kanongesha of the "Naembu The lisinal component of such rites begins with the con- it struction of a small shelter of leaves about 2 mile away from the capital village. This hut is known as haf or haf, aterm Ndembu derive from kus, for it is here that the chief-elect dics commoner state, Imagery-of-death-abounds in Ndembu For example, the secret and sacred site where novices are cifeameised is known as ifvilu or cif, a term also derived from fucfta. The chief-eect, clad in nothing but a ragged waistcloth, and a ritual wife, who is either his senior wife (muedri) ot a special slave woman, known as ukazw (after the royal bracelet) for the ly clad, are called by Kafwana to enter the Kafe after sundown. The is also mown as moadyi or lukanu ‘The couple are led there as though they were infirm. There they sit crouched in a posture of shame (nsexyi) or modesty, while they are washed with medicines ‘water brought from * you chiaftanship. You mast eat Liminality and Communitas or ‘Kafwana now breaks into a homily, as follows: i ‘with thet, De not prepare witcheraft medicines that you may devour yo desires cast head, ‘uttocks agai hhave told an before he succeeds.” He is prevented from sleepi ordeal, partly beca said that iPhe dozes off he will have bed dreams about the shades of dead chief, “who will say that he is102 \ The Ritual Process them to fetch firewood and perform other menial tasks. Th may not resent any ofthis or hold it against the perpetra \ to-come, ‘categories and groups neo; the neophytes are merely ee ATTRIBUTES OF LIMINAL ENTITIES ‘The phase of reaggregation in this case comprises the publ la tion of the Kanongesha with all pomp and ceremony. While this passage have t® would be of the utmost interest in study of Ndembu chiefiainship, of the total comm | and to an important trend in current British social anthropology, it é ‘whole gamut does not concer us here, Our psaenfees ic ipanLiminality and + relation the risual powers of the weak. These are shown under two aspects t 00, specelr roe merely commie TES Power and wisdom, The wisdom (mata) that is imparted in jon of words and sentences; aspect of the corona is ealled upon to be the the female elders—and she is so grown by the verbal truction she receives in precept and symbol, es ion to her of tribal sacra in the form of pot a destruction of the previous statu ence in order to prepare them to ies and restrain them in advance ‘They have to be shoris one of the main factors in ferentiated character of limi reflected by the liscontinnance of sexual relations and the absence of marked sexual larity. instructive to analyze the homiletic of Kafwana, in seeking to meaning of limin chided the chief-lect for his selfishness, meanness, craft, and greed. All these vices represent the desire to possess for one self what ought 10 be shared for the common good. An incumbent of high statusis peculiarly tempted to use the authority vest society to satisly these private and privative wishes. forms a component of many other types in many known example is the medieval knight’s vigil, during the night before he receives the accolade, when he has to pledge himself to serve the weak and the distressed and to meditate on his own unworthiness, His subsequent power is thought partially to spring from this pro= found immersion in humility ‘The pedagogies ofliminality, therefore, represent a condemnation ‘of two kinds of separation from the generic bond of communitas. | wis to act only in terms of the the incumbency of office in the social fallow one's psychobiological urges a ‘mystical character is assigned to the seni prays as follows Ibefore the people who have assembled your white clay. T have enthroned you, (© chief You © people must give forth sounds of praise. The chieftainship has eppeared.106 The Ritual Process ‘The powers that shape the neo the representatives of the community LIMINALITY CONTRASTED WITH STATUS SYSTEM Let us now, rath ence between the pro system in terms ofa seri They gan be en 35 Blows: n/technical knowledge Silence/speech Suspension of Kship ight and oblgaonsbip ight andy Foolishnessjsagacity Liminality and Communitas 107 Simplicty/eomplexty ‘Acceptance of pain and suffering/avoidance of pain and suffering Heteronomyidegrées of autonomy ‘This list could be considerably lengthened if we were to widen the span of liminal situations considered. Moreover, the symbols in which these proptrties are manifested and embodied are manifold and various, and often relate to the physiological processes of death Hindus, and Jews would num- eligious characteristics, too, What iat with the increasing specialization society has booome itself ani the religious community and devote themselves prayer, and work. They are and under the absolute control of a are bound to personal poverty, iage, and obedience to ther super and conversion of manners {origi108 Tho Ritual Process ation rites, when he enters his kingdom. + (Mukanda) present further paralltis transition to the pul i ludes monasteties, and de- votes a good deal of attention to “the stripping and leveling pro- cesies which . » direstly cut across the various social distinctions found to excel i ped’? of their secular clothing when they are passed beneath a symbolic gateway; they are “leveled” in that their former names are “novice,” and treat to the motets ‘on the night before circumcision con- tains the following line: “Even if your child isa chiefsson, tomorrow Weated The a slave” MYSTICAL DANGER AND THE POWERS OF THE WEAK One may well ask why ing to persons, objects, events, and relationships that have “be Redged around with prescriptions, pr \ Liminality and Communitas 109 not been ritually incorporated into the liminal context. My view is, beey that om the prpectvalviewpin of hve concerned with the maintenanee-ofstauch stained manifestations of eom- i tmenias mnt appear au dangerous and anaschoal and have to noted that mystical and moral powers are wielded by subjugated tal welfare of societies whose political frame ‘conquerors. In. for example—we can point to the. hhave gained entry through common misfortune and debilitating wmetimes on the Continent of Europe they werers attached to many other ” to one ofits mangins during the ant _ ileged to throw any of the great nobles 1 of justice during the past 7 _ protects itself aga ‘malaise moO -property-they.-possessto-bring-nearer-the. coming of the and communion they desire suspension of Kinship and « ns. (aI ARE siblings-or-cottiFades Of onte“another -cRegasls of previous secular ties) simplicity of speesh and manners,12 The Ritual Process sacred folly, acceptance of pain and suffering, undergoing martyrdom), and so forth, any of these movements cut right across yas during their intial momentum. Com- 1 differs in this from structure, oF the ly or ideally extensible to the the pein of # rest, for-the- rensor tht H-Reeie ell to be-the ubivemal-human_tr , such move phases of history many respects “homologous” to the liminal periods of important rituals in stable and repetitive societies, ‘when major groups or social categories in those tocieties are passing ur during ‘much of their mythology and symbolism is borrowed from those of traditional rites de passage, either in the cultures in which they originate or in the eultures with which they are in dramatic contact, HIPPIES, COMMUNITAS, AND THE POWERS OF THE WEAK categories —which do not have the advantages ‘passage—who “opt out” ofthe status-bound social order and acqui the stigmata of the lowly, dressing like “by jn their musical tastes, and mer 1ey undertake. They stestpersonaleelations ial obligations, and regard sexuality as a polymo Liminality and Communitas 13 ment of immediate-communitay rather thanar zhe-basit-or-an “ending eloquent about this can be seen in their Requent use of religious terms as and S‘angel,” to describe their congeners and in their interest in'Gep Buddhism, The} formula wared-cbaracte?\ | gp none 8 all” Well express ihe global, The hippie emphasis on spontaneity, © pidleg? language, law, and preindustrial soci ‘communitas and structure, are to be found at stages and level of culture and society. STRUCTURE AND COMMUNITAS IN KINSHIP DASED socteTiEsng. The Ritual Process instance, the types of property and status that pass in each line are very different. Let us begin by considering a society in there is unilineal descent only in the paternal line. This example is drawn once more from the Tallensi of Ghana, on which we have rich information, to discover whether in a binary discrimination at one vel of the type “structural superiority-structuralinferi- fe can find anything approximating the smal“ power of the can be shown to relate to the model of prevail between close collateral kin in our one ofthe factorsthat counterpoize the exclusive- Tineage (p. 32-—my emphases Here we have the opposition ps the fimtions om with property, office, pc added, particularistic and segmes link par excellence, The uterine characteristics, mutual interests and concerns, ‘counterpoised to exclusiveness, which presumabl ‘makes for inclusiveness and does not serve ma matrilater “mother image, sp a shrine to the [matrlateral] he can sacrifice to them regularly 2” which “persecutes” and “intervenes” ina macure6 ‘The Ritual Process intervenes, by breaking miomy of segmentary lineage and the Namoos invaders and the 1ones, become more and more meaningful to “men 1 participate as family and sublineage heads, and no. Norms and values “fom, the exclusiveness of lineage loyalties. Its clearly appropriate that commaunitas should here be symbol- i tral ancestors, especially by mother images, since, in this virilocal, pat segments from witho society, women enter the lineage patri- and, as Fortes has shown, matrilateral kin | understandable, too, that such spirits should be represented as “vindictive” and “jealous (who are the Founders of dugs, or matri-segment ideal unity of the patrilineage. To p\ such as adolescence, the attainment in significance from .n oF prophet’ assumes a statusless status, external to the secular social structure, which gives him the right ‘moral order bi ‘Sad is ethca-system-that-encompasieranct pervades the politicos —_ -Fascinating correlations can be shown in many societies w the perspective of communitas dlviduality as against status incum example, Fortes (1949) has show us the individuatin the tie hetween sister’ ton and mother's brother among the Tallens, which, he sys, “is an important breach in the genealogical fence enclosing the agnat one of the main gateways of an cal relations than his ancipated from the segmental status incumbencies determined by patriliny into the wider life of a communi ‘extends beyond the Tallensi proper bal groups religious culvure. Now for a look at a concrete example of the way in which the con- mntha?seothe’s people; thy them exnied im to hie mace18 The Ritual Process ‘mother’s brother's lineage, twelve miles from his own settlement, At nature of the eral grandson sm, He asks them to bless the setting up of the new 1e candidate to become a successful diviner, and to children, and health—i.e., general good tl ‘Then he scoops some sediment from the bottora of the pot, whic! direct continuity of the new bakolago angibly symbol intervening shrines are directly and “ tangibly ‘The fact that continuous physical contact between the involved is hardly p the bakalago shei ble is not ideological cs are symbols and ex} “Nine out of ten” mature men have each, All these men are lity of settlemen side, Once morewe have manifested mate connection between communi weal = Rasy Liminality and Communitas 1g 2. Nuor have already considered, According to Evans-Pritchard some myths of the Jikany tribes [of the Nuer] the leopard-skin ‘was given by the ancestors of the (terrtorially] dominat Jineages to their maternal ules that they might serve as tr ‘The structurally opposed lineages of the clan were then. ‘common relations ms to the line of priests, which thus had a mediatory pos leopard -skin pr del, members of the clans which own the ti ey] have no tribal territories of ineages, in most ot all territories owned by other clans. |, divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel”fare generally, since human activities ll take place on the ‘ag1). The priest's major role isin connection cide, where he gives the slayer sanctuary, negotiates a has many of the attributes of communitas ing familiar: he is a stranger, a mediator, acts for the whole come munity, has a mystical relationship with the whole earth it dwells upon, Fepresents peace as against feud, and is unaligned with any specific political segment. 3 Astanti tmuclear matellneage surrounded by a fringe of cognate and afines : “The mate for a matrilineage is abu, which, according to Liminality ond Commanitas war ial categorization which he regarded based on transmission by and through 950, p- 266) has emphasized the minimal significance of chis patrilineal element fo system, and {or the politieg-legal order. He speaks of the ‘named quasi« but these are neither exogamous nor organized males only. Fortes soul” that appear to Rattray (1929) was able to enumerate nine nore divisions, though he says there may have been more. These, of course, cut across the membership of the segmentary abusua matrilineages. One nro is traditionally considered to be “the first ntoro ever bestowed upon ‘man, the Bosommuru nore” (p. 48). The myth told in connectiones the way in Very long ago one man and one woman eame down from the cky and one woman came up fromthe eat From the Sky God ( home in the sver now and Bosompra, a river rising in Ashanés are connected of water, The major Ashanti gods are male det Onyame, the male High God. Euthermoce, they-are allots with water, the master symbel-of fertility, and-by extension af those gs the Ashanti hold.in.common, regardless of ther sib- Rattray (1925) quotes Ashanti assayin, that they might receive benefits from, and kind, All these sons bore the names of what are now rivers or lakes. « and every other river or water of any imporcance. The fluids ar clemntin man,” says Rattray (1523, in spfayee-feom themauth ofthe Ashanti it the Borommurs river, accompanied The white sy many ritual contexts where the water gods are w he priests of the High God and other deities regularly wear white vestments. I have discussed white sea and "To summariee our Asan findings wo this point: Thee would appear to be a nexus between tie father-child bond, wry (as WS idly scattered member 29? represented by the father image, Onyame, his sts cal python, a male symbol); olive; water; © symbol the ing, are Sky ‘feminine principle and the lood and through blood, wi (Rattray, 1927, p. the revengeful ghosts of vi14 ‘Tha Ritual Process creatures (boniay), he declares. No women are allowed to touch that the Tano River plays an importa: Asantehene, paramount chief of the ni symbolism of funerary ritual have a relationship with abuua since it is matrilineal kin who accuse one another of in the nature of a scapegoat or so elf the evils and sins ofthe world” (p. sono dye (made from the powdered bark of ably a species of Puarocerpus), which is “a substitute for buman of sheep and fowls that have been sacrificed upon a piece of fiber mself. On the day of the che king is smeared with the red esano dye” (p. 136). In this way the whitencss ofthe nfsro and the river Bosommuru is viblated. When the shrine is later purified, water from a number of sacred reat siver gods, who preside\over fe the life values shared by evelyn. The T Liminality and Communitas 135 white lay in a bow, and the sine is sprinkled the Sky God and the salth, strength, and all h the LIMINALITY, LOW STATUS, AND COMMUNITAS 1e has now come to make a careful review of a hypothesis is A Dictionary of the Social Scioces (Gould and ‘A.W, Ester reviews some major formulations~ . 126 The Ritual Process Liminality and Conomucitas 17 rmunitas”: “Community i the being no longer side by side (an one might add, above and Below) but sith one another ofa mui of persons. And this muliiude, though it moves towards one go. yet experiences everywhere a taming t, 8 dynamic fcing of & a flowing from 1 to Thou, Community is where commaun P51). Buber lays his Gager on the spontaneous, immediate, concrete patra of communes opp tthe normgoreac site | 2 tionalized, abstract nature of social structure 7 social structure may include critical or bas! imilarly from a class system based on relations Other aspects of social structure arise through member= | nds of persistent groups, such as el i ship in other ‘as some raze clements are never found in nature in their ly as components of chemical compounds, so com- relation to structure. Just ic arrangement of parts or ns more or less gradual, open for new ymunitas has a sugh I feel that perhaps he should be regarded as a gifted native informant rather than as a social 4 aspect of potentiality scientist! Buber (1961) uses the term “community” for “come between total beings are generative of symbols and metaphors and128 The Ritual Process comparisons; art and religion are their products rather than legal and political structures, Bergson saw in the words and writings of prophets and great artists the creation ofan “open mot ‘was itself'an expression of what he called the élan vital, 1 passionate sincerity to rid ‘themselves of the clichés associated with status ineumbency and role-playing and to enter into vi ions with other men in fact cor imagination. In their productions we may catch glimpses of that ‘unused evolutionary potential in mankind which has not yet been cexternalized and fixed ices of structure, in and from is almost everywhere held to be ransgresses or dissolves the onan elatiostp nd undergo the experiences 1 bakolog shrines. ‘The notion that there is a generic bond between men, ans and works of art. These templates or model which 8 of reality and man's ae, at one level, periodical reclassifi ris de paige, men are | only to retum to seuerze | ized hy their experience of commas. What i certain is that no -ancley- ean. funtion adequately-withoutthis-diaeeti | Exaggeration of structure may wel lea to pathological manifesae ‘communitas, in ‘eratization, or other modes of , an absolute authority, (a divinely inspired community sem t rege, sooner ol whether this be a, refigios, command fender, & ictair, Ci and organizational needs of tionalized, or and its members merge {nto the environing structured order. T suspect that Lewis Heary190 The Ritual Process nue longed fr the coming of worldwide eam he last sonorous paragraphs of Ancient Democracy rights and foreshadow the next v higher plane of soci! elligence and know= ‘higher plan¢ here that Morgan seemingly he error made by such thinkers as Rousseau and Marx: jon between communitas, which is a dimen ind choice—the individualist is often regarded as a 1e equality between, for example, men and women, elders and -cumbs to the sharp Membership of rival the “human condition,” as regards man’s relations wit 4 Communitas: Model and Process MODALITIES OF COMMUNITAS 5s fairly naturally from a seminar I ran ai Comell fan interdisciplinary geoup of students and faculty, ‘on various aspects of what may be called the meta-structural aspects of social relations. I was reared in the orthodox social-structuralist ish anthropology, which, to put a complex argument regards a “society” as a system of social structure, or both. What I want to stress here is that the units of between statuses, roles, and offices, Beyond against all” but also communi relationship between concrete, historical, idiosyncratic individuals.