Ritual Process by Rob Dufour

The section within The Ritual Process that stood out the most to me was the one about Liminality and Communitas. This is mostly because we talked a lot about these concepts while hiking this summer on the AT, and we also experienced them as well. The text has Van Gennep explain that all rites of passage are marked by three distinct phases: separation, margin (liminal), and aggregation. The first phase signifies the detachment of the individual from an earlier fixed point in a social structure. During the liminal phase the characteristics of the subject are ambiguous – he is between realms. The third phase is when the subject is complete. The ritual subject, now complete, is in a relatively stable state once more and is now again in a clearly define and structured social groups. This idea of liminality refers to when a person slips through the classifications that normally locate positions in cultural space. Liminal experiences are between the positions assigned by law, custom, and ceremony – the subject does not fall under any set conditions. We could think of this as someone who is simply in a transition state in their life, such as someone who recently graduated college and is between stages of being a dependent student to becoming an independent working person. Our culture is generally willing to accept and help people who are in this ambiguous state because most people have been there. We saw this often while hiking the AT through the generosity many showed to us once they knew we were hikers, rather than say a drifter. Victor goes on to say that “liminality implies that the high could not be high unless a low existed, and he who is high must experience what it is like to be low.” This reminds me of a similar theme that I focused on while hiking, which was that hiking the trail allows you appreciate simple things such as a faucet or electricity or shelter from the rain – things I would normally take for granted. But it is because I did experience lows on the trail that I was able to experience highs – our experiences are all relative.