Michelle Newcomb
Religious Studies – Primal Religions
Assigned
Communitas
In the Ritual Process Turner discusses the communitas and how humans connect to each other through this – on a spiritual level. In this sense, communitas is a sacred connection and its suggested that its something rare and therefore revered but can communitas happen anywhere? Can communitas happen to anyone?
My answer to this question is most definitely yes. I don’t think communitas has to be something rare and unachievable, it is an experience gained with someone you have otherwise little in common with. My interpretation of communitas might sound a little out there, but I think that its worth considering.
The music department at CNU is its own little community and each member shares a sort of communitas. The ‘band geek’ persona isn’t all stereotyped – music people all around feel that they are different from the average Joe, they don’t feel excluded or that they’re group is itself exclusive – only that the group is comprised of the same type of person. After talking to a few people in the music community, I found that phrase came up a lot – that they are just the same type of person. There isn’t a lot that they have in common (they aren’t from the same area, don’t have religious similarities or political views in common – in essence, the only thing they share is a love of music). The group is brought together through this mutual love and after 5 years working hard at the same university, are brought together as a communitas. Everyone knows that the music majors life is a hectic one and after sharing common woes of bad auditions, late rehearsals, difficult classes and heavy schedules – this group forms a bond like that of a communitas. They are not exclusionary nor do they try to leave people out, there is a bond there that freshman (or new students) don’t understand but want to be a part of. After experiencing the life of a music major and working with and alongside them, the new members are slowing inducted into the communitas and become members of the group.
I just found this an interesting interpretation to the Turners view on communitas and I wanted to apply it to a real life, every day example I see around me,
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