Turner, Victor
Bio: (1920–1983). Victor Turner was born in Great Britain and studied anthropology at Manchester University under anthropologist Max Gluckman. He is most famous for his ethnographic fieldwork with the Ndembu people, a Bantu population in Zambia, and several books written based on that research. The first of those books is Schism and Continuity in an African Society: A Study of a Ndembu Village (1957). In this book, Turner focuses on the contradictions in Ndembu society, especially marriage instability. The matrilineal account of kinship was at odds with the virilocal residence. Turner’s research of genealogical data revealed regular divisions of villages that were counterbalanced with rituals as a source of solidarity and inter-village cohesion.
Turner wrote several books on symbolism and rituals in Ndembu people - Ndembu Divination: Its Symbolism and Techniques (1961), The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (1967), The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia (1968), and The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969). The most influential area of study was his analysis of rites of passage and time intervals known as “liminal periods”. The liminal periods, which Turner also calls „anti-structure“, are periods where the transition from two socially structured states happens. The book Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (1974) further explores how rituals and symbolic thought create socially beneficial outcomes.
Fields of research
Aggression Animism Anthropology Art Christianity Communication Community Conflict Cooperation Crisis Culture Customs, Social Emotions Family Integration Kinship Language Matriarchy Media Myth Religion Sign and Symbol Socialization TribeTheoretical approaches
Symbolic (Interpretative) AnthropologyMain works
Schism and Continuity in an African Society: A Study of a Ndembu Village (1957);
Ndembu Divination: Its Symbolism and Techniques (1961);
The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (1967);
The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia (1968);
The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969);
Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (1974)
Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (1978);
From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play (1982);
Liminality, Kabbalah, and the Media (1985);
The Anthropology of Performance (1986);
The Anthropology of Experience (1986).
