Victor Turner

Victor Witter Turner (May 28, 1920 – December 18, 1983) was a British anthropologist who studied rituals and social change and developed the concept of "liminality," first introduced by Arnold van Gennep, and for coining the term "communitas." Turner's work revealed much about the processes of social change, both from the point of view of the individual experience and the development of common beliefs that characterize the social group. He researched the meaning of rituals and their symbolism in this context. Through developing the concepts of liminality and communitas as examples of unstructured community experience in which all members have the same social status, Turner suggested that human beings require time and separation from their social obligations to process and adjust to change.

Works

• with Marc J. Swartz, Arthur Tuden (eds.), Political Anthropology, Chicago, Illinois: Aldine Publishing Company, 1966.
• The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, 1969–.
• Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1975.
• Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual, Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1975
• Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives, New York: Columbia University, 1978.
• From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, New York: PAJ, 1982, 127 pp.
• On the edge of the bush. Anthropology as Experience, Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1985.
• with Edward M. Bruner (eds.), The Anthropology of Experience, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois, 1986.

Links

• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Victor_Turner
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Turner