Whitney Swaim - Turner (Class Reading 4)

In The Ritual Process, Turner describes his early experiences with Ndembu rituals in Africa. While he was able to decipher his own meaning from the female puberty rite rituals, Turner realized that he had much to learn. In order to gain any genuine understanding of these events, then he would have to see what the rituals mean to these people personally. Aside from dealing with an obvious language barrier, I, myself, would have quite a difficult time interpreting these ceremonies. With the outstanding number of oral tribes there might be in a relatively small area of Africa, one might expect that these groups have much in common. However, many tribes that live near one another are completely separate and distinct. Although they may share certain agricultural practices and lifestyle characteristics, each group has a unique creation story and worldview. This means that their rituals grew in drastically different ways. I am humbled by any outsider who is able to even grasp a relatively legitimate understanding of how oral societies view their rituals.