Communitas |
Turner's concept, denoting intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging, often in connection with rituals. In communitas, people stand together "outside" society, and society is strengthened by this. The concept is in many ways the opposite of Marx's alienation or Durkheim's anomie, and is closely related to the latter's ideas about the "sacred" (vs. the "profane").
"Communitas as a social form alternates
with "normal" social structure,
and is, according to Victor Turner's theories, not limited to the liminal
phase in rites de passage. [...] [Many social] phenomena are difficult
to place within van Gennep's rites de passage model of separation,
liminality and reintegration, [but] may more naturally be considered a
form of "anti-structure", alternating with normal social structure.
Turner detached the phenomena liminality and communitas from the model
for transitional rituals (Turner 1969). The two social models exist simultaneously
in a society, and no normal society can function adequately without this
dialectic with communitas (Turner
1967:129). The alternation between the two states follows successively
and is enforced naturally." |
For texts concerned with communitas on AnthroBase,
click here:
http://www.anthrobase.com/Browse/Thm/C/communitas.htm
For texts concerned with liminality on AnthroBase,
click here:
http://www.anthrobase.com/Browse/Thm/L/liminality.htm