The Ritual Process by Victor Turner is an anthropological work, mainly of the Ndembu

people of Central Africa. At first he does not place importance on ritual, until he realizes that
the study of tribal ritual would certainly have been in the spirit of the institutes initial
aspiration to studythe problem of establishing permanent and satisfactory relations between
natives and non-natives, for satisfactory relations depend on a deep mutual understanding
(Turner, pg 6). His survey of the Ndembu rituals include a deep study of the etymology of the
names of the various rituals. Initially, Turner expresses that in the social scientific study of his
day, there was a disdain of the study of ritual. In this work, he seeks to challenge that stance.
From the outset of his research, Turner agrees that Levi-Strauss method of dissecting
the myth and cosmology will not work in understanding the Ndembu. This is the case at hand
since Levi-Strauss method seeks to reconstruct the cosmogony through the myths.
Unfortunately, Turner finds the Ndembu to have few myths, thus not making it possible to
perform that method. On the contrary, he asserts one has to proceed atomistically and
piecemeal from blaze to blaze, beacon to beacon, if one is properly to follow the indigenous
mode of thinking (Tuner, pg 20). In addition, Turner states, my method is perforce the
reverse of that of those numerous scholars who begin by eliciting the cosmology, which is often
expressed in terms of mythological cycles, and then explain specific ritual as exemplifying or
expressing the structural models they find in myths (Turner, pg 14). Interestingly, this would
also apply to Eliades theses on the center, cosmology, and regeneration of time.
Furthermore, he calls Levi-Strauss method a short cut. Turner seeks to understand by
completing the symbolic path from the unknown to the known, which will then allow one to
look backwards. In addition, Levi-Strauss method of dissecting the myths presented the
problem ofpolysemy with the Isoma ritual in that it could signify many things (Turner, pg 42).
Furthermore, Turner asserts that in the Wubwangu ritual, the presence of children would be
regarded by Levi-Strauss as mediators. However, Turner agrees that the Ndembu look at the
children as symbols of twinship and fertility (Turner, pg 70). Ultimately, Turners goal is to
understand the meaning of the symbol through eyes of the Ndembu.
Turner would agree with Saussure that the language constructs the ritual, hence the
religion. Turners entire analysis of the Ndembu depends on his knowledge of their language.
Through this understanding, he is able to gain insight on the relationship of the name of rituals
and their cognitive processes. For example, the Isoma ritual derives from ku-somoka, which
signifies to slip out of place or fastening (Turner, pg 16). This alludes to the unborn child that
slips out of the woman that miscarries. Moreover, chijikijilu refers to a ritual element or unit.
It really means, a landmark. Its etymon is ku-jikijila, to blaze a trailby slashing a mark on a
tree with an ax or breaking one of its branches (Turner, pg 15). In the same vein, Saussure
stressed the study of language as a means of understanding the social construct of any given
civilization. Also, Turner states, Whether the etymological explanation of the names of ritual
objects and actions is true or false is unimportant. Ndembu are merely utilizing one of the
processes that give richness to the semantic content of all languageshomonymywhich may
be described as a kind of serious punning. This sheds light on Turners thesis that relatively
few symbols must represent a multiplicity of phenomena (Turner, pg 64).
Turner would agree with Levi-Strauss psychoanalysis of the shaman and the patient.
For example, the Isoma ritual seeks to make the woman and matrilineage fruitful. It is believed
by in Ndembu culture that a woman is cursed, thus producing a shade of Isoma. In this ritual,
a diviner must begin at a burrow of a giant rat which must be near to a stream or river. Both
Levi-Strauss and Freud would agree that this ritual takes the patient through a serious of
psychological and emotional rollercoasters in order to produce ease, thus resulting in having a
child. According to Levi-Strauss, healing through a shaman and through a psychoanalyst are
similar in that they use symbols, i.e. language, where the former speaks for the patient. On the
contrary, Turner points out that the Isoma ritual not only orders the Ndembu universe, but
also present evocative devices for rousing, channeling, and domesticating powerful emotions,
such as hate, fear, affection, and grief (Turner, pg 43). In his final analysis of the ritual, Turner
raises the question, But, given the limited knowledge of natural causation transmitted in
Ndembu culture, who can doubt that under favorable circumstances the use of these medicines
may produce considerable psychological benefit? (Turner, pg 43)
As a contrast to the themes of structure, Turner introduces the concepts of liminal
personae and communitas. He defines liminal entities betwixt and between the positions
assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial (Turner, pg 95). Moreover,
liminality implies that the high could not be high unless the low exists, and he who is high
must experience what it is like to be low (Turner, pg 97). Next, he uses the Latin term
communitas to describe the subcultures within a structured society. David Hume said that the
inferior or the outsider often time symbolize the sentiment of humanity, which serve as models
of communitas (Turner, pg 111). Turner makes an interesting statement when he says, They
are essentially phenomena of transition. This is perhaps why in so many of these movements
much of their mythology and symbolism is borrowed from those of traditional rites of passage
(Turner, pg 112). Remarkably, this describes the esoteric circles of the aside Ashkenaz (pious
ones) from the 10
th
century Rhineland region. They constructed their own structure of
mysticism and kept it among a select group. Their teachings were later to creep into the
mainstream Jewish communities through the dissemination of the Zohar and the Bahir. Turner
says that the concepts of liminality and communitas are best exemplified by the Christian life of
monasticismthey are in a perpetual transition, neither of this world, nor of the next. Also, the
Levite tribe of Israel is an example of this, in that they were scattered among Israel, yet
without tribal borders (Turner, pg 119). He concludes by saying that Communitas breaks in
through the interstices of structure, in liminality; at the edges of structure, in marginality; and
from beneath structure, in inferiority (Turner, pg 128).
The communitas poses a challenge in defining religion within a given society. The
structuralists such as Levi-Strauss and Durkheim sought to define everything neatly. One can
also include Mircea Eliades analysis of a religious society. However, the marginalizedthe
prophet, the artist, and the jester do not fit into that category. This is where the mystic has
leeway within a given religion. Precisely, this is why W.C. Smith makes a distinction between
cumulative tradition and faith. It is within the realm of faith that such groups emerge, such
as the masons, Illuminati, and assidism. A quick survey of the Abrahamic traditions and the
Hindu traditions demonstrate how the communitas began as a low-class, then emerging into a
world religion. The Hebrew people emerged out of the Egyptian society. The messianic sect of
the Nazarenes emerged out of 1
st
century apocalyptic Jewish tradition (Essenes), later evolving
into Catholicism. Islam emerges out of the Judeo-Christian context of the Arabian Peninsula.
Also, the Buddhist tradition which began as a communitas within Hindu society later became to
be a major religion. In the 19
th
century, many groups such as the Jehovah Witnesses, the
Apostolic Church, and the 7
th
day Adventists emerged out of millennialism after the Great
Disappointment of 1844. Hence, every major religion or Christian denomination was at one
time a sect. To a certain extent, Freud was correct in that certain individuals within civilizations
are not content with their states. Could he have been referring to what Turner calls the people
of liminality? For a great majoritythose that do not possess art nor science, religion and
structure works. On the other hand, where there is a law or a structure, there will ever be a
poet, musician, or prophet to serve as a catalyst in the evolutionary process within that
respective civilization to promote change. Finally, this grey area is where the theory of
structural anthropology fails.