. . . the word liminality comes from the Latin word “limen,” which means “threshold.” It was used by Arnold Van Gennep (1908) in his treatise on rites of passage to describe that place in between one social state and the next (for example, being single and being married). Victor Turner later expanded on this in his work on the Ndembu of Zambia, explaining that those in the liminal state (during a rite of passage) were neither here nor there, and in fact in between the structure of society.
This concept has since been defined in various ways to suit various fields of study, but I came across it while doing my MA thesis, a comparative study of the North American Indian trickster and the protagonist of the Korean “Tale of the Rabbit.” The trickster has a unique position in society, never staying in one place, always moving here or there, never really belonging to any one class or group—yet he is always able to penetrate the social structure at will, although he cannot remain there. The concept fascinated me, and I argued that it was one of the most important things Rabbit and the trickster had in common.I chose “liminality” as the title of this site because, first of all, I like the way the word sounds. It really just glides off the tongue. More importantly, though, I feel that the idea of liminality applies to my life. As a Westerner in Asia, I am between two cultures, never fully belonging to one or the other, but belonging to both at the same time. As a translator, I occupy the place between languages, engaging in a simultaneous act of deconstruction and creation. And in terms of my faith, I struggle to be in the world but not of it—a citizen of a land I will never see in this lifetime, a wanderer for whom home is wherever I happen to be at the moment. Maybe this is why I was so fascinated with the concept of liminality, why it spoke so directly to me.. . . liminality represents the midpoint of transition in a status-sequence between two positions, outsiderhood refers to actions and relationships which do not flow from a recognized social status but originate outside it. . .
Using Sartre’s terminology, he states: “I see liminality as a phase in social life in which this confrontation between ‘activity which has no structure’ and its ‘structured results’ produces in men their highest pitch of self-consciousness” (1974: 255).
from Victor Turner “Passages, Margins, and Poverty: Religious Symbols of Communitas,” from Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors (1974).
And to read further: What is Liminality?
Comments