FOREST OF

SYMBOLS

ASPECTS OF
NDEMBU RITUAL

VICTOR TURNER

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i6 iS 20 19 17 15
 CHAPTER IV

Betwixt and Between:

The Liminal Period
in Rites de Passage*

ties of
IN this paper, I wish to consider some of the sociocuhural proper
Gennep
of rituals which Arnold van
the “liminal period” in that class (trite s de passage.” If our basic model
has definitively characterized as
ns,” we must regard the
of society is that of a “structure of positio
nctural situation. I shall
period of margin or “liminality” as an interstr
s, some of the main
consider, notably in the case of initiation rite
ieties. I shall also take
features of instruction among the simpler soc
ely express indigenous
note of certain symbolic themes that concret
human beings.
concepts about the nature of “interstructural”
Rites de passage are found in all societi
es but tend to reach their
stable and cyclical socie
maximal expression in small-scale, relatively
ical and meteorological
ties, where change is bound up with biolog
nological innovations.
rhythms and recurrences rather than with tech
ns between states. By
Such rites indicate and constitute transitio
le condition” and would
“state” I mean here tta relatively fixed or stab
include in its meaning such social constan
cies as legal status, profes
to designate also the
sion, office or calling, rank or degree. I hold it
culturally recognized
condition of a person as determined by his
“the married or single
degree of maturation as when one speaks of
may also be applied
state” or the “state of infancy.” The term “state”
*
Read at the Annual Meeting of the Ame
rican Ethnological Society in
Proceetings of the American
Pittsburgh, March 1964. First published in The
Ethnological Society (1964).
93
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 -1
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CJD

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cc
C’
 ‘0I
ico LIMINAL PERIOD
THE FOREST OF SYMBOLS BETWIXT AND BETWEEN:
tradition. The authority of the elders is absolute, because it represents Among the Ndembu of
I principle: “Each for all, and all for each.” novices in circumcision
the absolute, the axiomatic values of society in which are expressed for
Zambia, for example, all food brought equally among them. No
the “common good” and the common interest. The essence of the is shared out
seclusion by their mothers
complete obedience of the neophytes is to submit to the elders but of chiefs or headmen. Any
special favors are bestowed Ofl the Sons is taken by the elders and
only in so far as they are in charge, so to speak, of the common good bush
food acquired by novices in the friendships between novices are
and represent in their persons the total community. That the author
apportioned among the group. Deep
ity in question is really quintessential tradition emerges clearly in so lodge fires in clusters of four or
encouraged, and they sleep around
cieties where initiations are not collective but individual and where all are supposed to be linked by
five particular comrades. However,
there are no instructors or gurus. For example, Omaha boys, like other rites are over, even into old age.
North American Indians, go alone into the wilderness to fast and pray special ties which persist after the (from a term meaning
(Hocart 1952, ;6o). This solitude is liminal between boyhood and This friendship, known as wu1,wamlfl claim privileges of hospitality
“breast”) or wutunda, enables a man to
manhood. If they dream that they receive a woman’s burden-strap, need here to dwell on the lifelong
of a farreachiflg kind. I have no
they feel compelled to dress and live henceforth in every way as friendship those initiated into the
ties that are held to bind in close
women. Such men are known as mixuga. The authority of such a NiloHamitic and Bantu societies, into
same age-set in East African
dream in such a situation is absolute. Alice Cummingham Fletcher an American campus or into the
tells of one Omaha who had been forced in this way to Jive as a the same fraternity or sorority on in Western Europe.
same class in a Naval or Military Academy ease and, I would add,
woman, but whose natural inclinations led him to rear a family and to familiarity,
This comradeship, with its
go on the warpath. Here the rnixuga was not an invert but a man the product of interstrctutal
mutual outspokeflfless is once more sanctio
bound by the authority of tribal beliefs and values. Among many ned relationships and its
liminality, with its scarcity of urally
Plains Indians, boys on their lonely Vision Quest inflicted ordeals and of the common weal. People
emphasis on axiomatic values expressive when they are not acting
tests on themselves that amounted to tortures. These again were not said,
can “be themselves,” it is frequently responsibilities and in the
basically self-tortures inflicted by a masochistic temperament but due
institutionalized roles. Roles, too, carry
to obedience to the authority of tradition in the liminal situation—a responsibility is borne by the
liminal situation the main burden of
type of situation in which there is no room for secular compromise, develop interpersonal relation
elders, leaving the neophytes free to anothe as it were, integrally
evasion, manipulation, casuistry, and maneuver in the field of custom, one r,
ships as they will. They confront actors of roles.
rule, and norm. Here again a cultural explanation seems preferable to fashion as
and not in compartmentalized instruc tors, their malleability,
a psychological one. A normal man acts abnormally because he is
The passivity of neophytes to their
obedient to tribal tradition, not out of disobedience to it. He does not ordeal, their reduction to a uni
which is increased by submission to
evade but fulfills his duties as a citizen. process whereby they are ground
form condition, are signs of the
If complete obedience characterizes the relationship of neophyte to endowed 1th additional powers to
elder, complete equality usually characterizes the relationship of neo down to be fashioned anew and Richards, in her superb study
cope with their new station in life. Dr.
phyte to neophyte, where the rites are collective. This comradeship Chisungu, has told us that Bemba speak
must be distinguished from brotherhood or sibling relationship, since of Bemba girls’ puberty rites, initiating her (1956, 12’). This
of “growing a girl” when they mean
in the latter there is always the inequality of older and younger, many peoples think of transition
which often achieves linguistic representation and may be maintained term “to grow” well expresses how to reify our abstractions (it is
by legal sanctions. The liminal group is a community or comity of rites. We are inclined, as sociologists, understand many nds of social
comrades and not a structure of hierarchically arrayed positions. This indeed a device which helps us to “moving through struc
interconnection) and to talk about persons
comradeship transcends distinctions of rank, age, kinship position, and the like. Not so the Bemba
tural positions in a hierarchical frame”
and, in some kinds of cultic group, even of sex. Much of the behavior see the status or condition em
and the Shulluk of the Sudan who person To “grow” a girl into a
recorded by etlinographers in seclusion situations falls under the
bodied or incarnate, if you like, in the .
 J03
PERIOD
102 THE FOREST OF SYMBOLS BETWIXT AND BETWEEN: LIMINAL
of the dead or the adventures of
woman is to effect an ontological transfonnation; it is not merely to and icons representing the journeys
A striking feature
convey an unchanging substance from one position to another by a supernatural beings may be shown to the initiands.
formal simplicity. It is their
quasi-mechanical force. Howitt saw Kuringals in Australia and I have of such sacred articles is often their
outward form.
seen Ndembu in Africa drive away grown-up men before a circumci interpretation which is complex, not their
neophytes may be reckoned
sion ceremony because they had not been initiated. Among Ndembu, Among the “instructions” received by
but seculally secret, names
men were also chased off because they had only been circumcised at such matters as the revelation of the real,
preside over the rites—a very
the Mission Hospital and had not undergone the full bush seclusion of the deities or spirits believed to
secret associations (Turner
according to the orthodox Ndembu rite. These biologically mature frequent procedure in African cultic or
outlines of the theogony,
men had not been “made men” by the proper ritual procedures. It is 1962a, 36). They are also taught the main
societies or cults, usually
the ritual and the esoteric teaching which grows girls and makes men. cosmogony, and mythical history of their
Great importance is attached to
It is the ritual, too, which among Shilluk makes a prince into a king, with reference to the sacra exhibited.
the formulas chanted and
or, among Luvale, a cultivator into a hunter. The arcane knowledge keeping secret the nature of the sacra, the crux of liminality,
or “gnosis” obtained in the liminal period is felt to change the inmost instructions given about them. These constitute social obligations in
ethical and
nature of the neophyte, impressing him, as a seal impresses wax, with for while instruction is also given in
to fit neophytes for the
the characteristics of his new state. It is not a mere acquisition of law and in kinship rules, and in technology on knowledge thus
placed
knowledge, but a change in being. His apparent passivity is revealed duties of future office, no interdiction is uninitiated persons also.
as an absorption of powers which will become active after his social imparted since it tends to be current among the communicati on
considering
status has been redefined in the aggregation rites. I want to take up three problems in the second
frequent dispropoTti0fl
The structural simplicity of the liminal situation in many initia of sacra. The first concerns their
third their mystery.
tions in offset by its cultural complexity. I can touch on only one their monstrousness, and the figurines and such dis
When one examines the masks, costumes,
aspect of this vast subject matter here and raise three problems in
struck, as I have been when
connection with it. This aspect is the vital one of the communication played in initiation situations, one is often
and funerary rites, by the
of the sacra, the heart of the liminal matter. observing Ndembu masks in circumcision
cultural features are represented as
Jane Harrison has shown that in the Greelc Eleusinian and Orphic way in which certain natural and or phallus a hoe, bow,
mysteries this communication of the sacra has three main components disproportionately large or small. A head, nose,
huge or tiny by compalison with
(1903, 144—160). By and large, this threefold classification
holds or meal mortar are represented as
retain their normal size. (For a
good for initiation rites all over the world. $acra may be communi other features of their context which
Without Arms” in Chisungn
cated as: (i) exhibitions, “what is shown”; (2) actions, “what is good example of this, see “The Man
lazy man with an enormous
done”; and () instructions, “what is said.” [Richards 1956, 21 iJ, a figurine of a
retain their customary shapes
“Exhibitions” would include evocatory instruments or sacred ar penis but no arms.) Sometimes things
What is the point of this exagger
ticles, such as relics of deities, heroes or ancestors, aboriginal chur but are portrayed in unusual colors.
caricature? It seems to me that to
in gas, sacred drums or other musical instruments, the Contents of ation amounting sometimes to
this way is a primordial mode of
Amerindian medicine bundles, and the fan, cist and tympanum of enlarge or diminish or discolor in
exaggerated feature is made into an
Greek and Near Eastern mystery cults. In the Lesser Eleusinian abstraction. The outstandingly
a univocal symbol that is thus
Mysteries of Athens, sacra consisted of a bone, top, ball, tambourine, object of reflection. Usually it is not
semantic molecule with many
apples, mirror, fan, and woolly fleece. Other sacra include masks, represented but a muhivocal one, a
pottery emblem Coski wa
images, figurines, and effigies; the pottery emblems (mbusa) of the components. One example is the Bemba
described by Audrey Richards in
Bemba would belong to this class. In some kinds of initiation, as for ng’olna, “The Nursing Mother,”
inches high, of an exaggerat
example the initiation into the shaman-diviner’s profession among the Chisungu. This is a clay figurine, nine
carrying four babies at the same time,
Saora of Middle India, described by Verrier Elwyn pictures edly pregnant mother shown
 105
104 THE FOREST OF SYMBOLS LIMINAL PERIOD
BETWIXT AND BETWEEN:
gods or
one at her breast and three at her back. To this figurine is attached a accounts for animal-headed
animal together. This in part own view is the opposite one:
riddling song: animal-gods with human heads.” My distin
precisely to teach neophytes to
My mother deceived me! that monsters are manufactured factors of reality, as it is conceived
Coshi wa ng’oma! guish clearly between the different James’s so-called “law of
William
So you have deceived me; in their culture. Here, I think, be
the problem of monsters. It may
I have become pregnant again. dissociation” may help us to clarify parts of the same
Ii occurred together as
Bemba women interpreted this to Richards as follows: stated as follows: when a and the occurrence of one of
discriminat,
total object, without being of a,
Coshi wa ng’oma was a midwife of legendary fame and is merely ax, favors the discrimination
these, a, in a new combination associated
addressed in this song. The girl complains because her mother told her to James himself put it, “What is
and x from one another. As dissoci
wean her first child too soon so that it died; or alternatively told her that with another, tends to become
now with one thing and now contemplation
she would take the first child if her daughter had a second one. But she into an object of abstract
was tricking her and now the girl has two babies to look after. The moral ated from either, and to grow dissociation by varying
this the law of
stressed is the duty of refusing intercourse with the husband before the by the mind. One might call
baby is weaned, i.e., at the second or third year. This is a common Bemba concomitants” (1918, 506). of
the grotesqueness and monstrosity
practice (1956, 209—210). Prom this standpoint, much of at terrorizing or
aimed not so much
liminal sacra may he seen to be as at making
In the figurine the exaggerated features are the number of children or out of their wits
bemusing neophytes into submission “factors” of
carried at once by the woman and her enormously distended belly. of what may be called the
them vividly and rapidly aware Ndembu and Luvale masks that
Coupled with the song, it encourages the novice to ponder upon two their culture. I have myself seen attri
relationships vital to her, those with her mother and her husband. have both animal and human
combine features of both sexes, characteristics WIth
Unless the novice observes the Bemba weaning custom, her mother’s representation human
butes, and unite in a single partly human and
desire for grandchildren to increase her matrilineage and her hus One kishi mask is
those of the natural landscape. Elements are withdrawn from their
band’s desire for renewed sexual intercourse will between them actu partly represents a grassy plain. unique
ally destroy and not increase her offspring. Underlying this is the with one another in a totally Into
usual settings and combined Monsters startle neophytes
deeper moral that to abide by tribal custom and not to sin against it configuration the monster or dragon. their
relationships, and features of
either by excess or defect is to live satisfactorily. Even to please those thinking about objects, persons,
one loves may be to invite calamity, if such compliance defies the for granted.
environment they have hitherto taken how
immemorial wisdom of the elders embodied in the inbusa. This wis aspect of liminality, I mentioned
In discussing the structural conse
dom is vouched for by the mythical and archetypal midwife Coshi wa their structural positions and
neophytes are withdrawn from
ng’onza. sentiments, and techniques associated
quently from the values, norms, habits of
If the exaggeration of single features is not irrational but thought- those positiofls. They are also divested of their previous are
with the liminal period, neophytes
provoking, the same may also be said about the representation of thought, feeling, and action. During think about their society, their
monsters. Earlier writers—such as J. A. McCullocli (1913) in his to
alternately forced and encouraged and sustain them. LiminalitY
article on “Monsters” in Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and generate
cosmos, and the powers that ideas,
Ethics—are inclined to regard bizarre and monstrous masks and fig stage of reflection. In it those
may be partly described as a hitherto for the neophytes bound
ures, such as frequently appear in the liminal period of initiations, as sentiments, and facts that had been were, re
the product of “hallucinations, night-terrors and dreams.” McCulloch accepted unthinkingly are, as it and
up in configurations and
goes on to argue that “as man drew little distinction (in primitive These constituents are Isolated
solved into their constituents. processes as
society) between himself and animals, as he thought that transforma into objects of reflection for the neophytes by such
made
tion from one to the other was possible, so he easily ran human and dissociation by varying concomitants.
componental exaggeration and
II
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 4 109
L PERIOD
i o8 THE FOREST OF SYMBOLS BETWIXT AND BETWEEN: LIMINA
what Warner (1959, 3—4) would call “nonrational or nonlogical
t nation assemble at the capital to
celebrate its rites, “whereby the
year.” The Incwala is at the same
symbols” which nation receives strength for the new
well-being is identified with that
arise out of the basic individual and cultural assumptions, more often time “a play of kingship.” The king’s
al strengthening. Lunar sym
uncOnscioUs than not, from which most social action springs. They supply of the nation. Both require periodic ritu
as we shall see, and the king,
the solid core of mental and emotional life of each individual and group. holism is prominent in the rites,
seclusion represents the moon in
This does not mean that they are irrational or maladaptive, or that man personifying the nation, during his
cannot often think in a reasonable way about them, but rather that they do waning nor waxing. Dr. Kuper,
j transition between phases, neither
not have their source in his rational processes. When they come into play, essor Wilson (1961) have dis
E Professor Gluckman (1954), and Prof
such factors as data, evidence, proof, and the facts and procedures of Incwata which are clearly present
cussed the structural aspects of the
rational thought in action are apt to be secondary or unimportant. egation. What we are about to
in its rites of separation and aggr
The central cluster of nonlogical sacra is then the symbolic tem examine are the interstructural aspects.
sion, the king, painted black,
plate of the whole system of beliefs and values in a given culture, its During his night and day of seclu
blackness” and “in darkness”; he
archetypal paradigm and ultimate measure. Neophytes shown these remains, says Dr. Kuper, “painted in
self and others. He must cohabit
are often told that they are in the presence of forms established from is unapproachable, dangerous to him
(in a kind of “mystical marriage”—
the beginning of things. (See Cicero’s comment [De Leg. II. rJ on that night with his first ritual wife
ed for such liminal situations).
the Eleusinian Mysteries: “They are rightly called initiations [begin this ritual wife is, as it were, consecrat
ningsJ because we have thus learned the first principles of life.”) I ly in a state of taboo and seclusion.
The entire population is also temporari
have used the metaphor of a seal or stamp in connection with the ended; sexual intercourse is pro
Ordinary activities and behavior are susp morning, and when they get
ontological character ascribed in many initiations to arcane knowl wing
hibited, no one may sleep late the follo
edge. The term “archetype” denotes in Creek a master stamp or ed to touch each other, to wash the body, to sit on
up they are not allow
impress, and these sacra, presented with a numinous simplicity, stamp or even to scratch their hair. The
mats, to poke anything into the ground,
into the neophytes the basic assumptions of their culture. The neo e merry. The sound of songs that
children are scolded if they play and mak
th is abruptly stilled; it is the day of
phytes are told also that they are being filled with mystical power by has stirred the capital for nearly a mon . . .
all day he sits
ins secluded;
what they see and what they are told about it. According to the bacisa (cause to hide). The king rema
hut of the harem or in the sacred
purpose of the initiation, this power confers on them capacities to naked on a lion skin in the ritual
of his inner circle see that he
undertake successfully the tasks of their new oflice, in this world or enclosure in the royal cattle byre. Men le
. . .
on this day the identification of the peop
the next. breaks none of the taboos to it that the peop le
(who see
Thus, the communication of sacra both teaches the neophytes how with the king is very marked. The spies ing late” or “You are
are sleep
respect the taboos) do not say, “You
to think with some degree of abstraction about their cultural milieu “You caus e the king to sleep,” “You scratch him (the
scratching,” but
and gives them ultimate standards of reference. At the same time, it is king)”; etc. (Kuper 1947, 219—220).
believed to change their nature, transform them from one kind of which exemplify the “darkness”
human being into another. It intimately unites man and office. But for Other symbolic acts are performed
themes, for example, the slaughter
a variable while, there was an uncommitted man, an individual and “waxing and waning moon”
the queen mother with a black
rather than a social persona, in a sacred community of individuals. ing of a black ox, the painting of
half-moon, while the king is a
It is not only in the liminal period of initiations that the nakedness mixture—she is compared again to a
until the paint is washed off finally
and vulnerability of the ritual subject receive symbolic stress. Let me full moon, and both are in eclipse
al subject “comes once again into
quote from Hilda Kuper’s description of the seclusion of the Swazi with doctored water, and the ritu
chief during the great Incwala ceremony (1961, 197—225). The lightness and normality.”
embarrassment of symbolic riches.
Incwala is a national First-Fruits ritual, performed in the height of In this short passage we have an
that bear on the argument of this
summer when the early crops ripen. The regiments of the Swazi I will mention only a few themes
 BEfl1VIXT AND BETWEEN: LIMINAL PERIOD i i r
110 THE FOREST Of SYMBOLS
Gluckman, Max. 1954. Rittwls of Rebellion in South-East Africa. Man
paper. Let us look at the king’s position first. He is symbolically
invisible, “black,” a moon between phases. He is also under obedience chester University Press.
Harrison, Jane E. 1903. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion.
to traditional rules, and “men of his inner circle” see that he keeps London: Cambridge University Press.
them. He is also “naked,” divested of the trappings of his office. He Hocart, A. M. 1952. The Life-Giving Myth. London: Methuen.
remains apart from the scenes of his political action in a sanctuary or James, E. 0. 1961. Comparative Religion. London: Methuen.
ritual hut. He is also, it would seem, identified with the earth which James, William. 1918. Principles of Psychology. Vol. i. New York: H.
the people are forbidden to stab, lest the king be affected. He is Holt.
“hidden.” The king, in short, has been divested of all the outward Kuper, Hilda. 1947. An African Aristocracy. London: Oxford University
attributes, the “accidents,” of his kingship and is reduced to its sub Press, for International African Institute.
stance, the “earth” and “darkness” from which the normal, structured McCulloch, J. A. 1913. “Monsters,” in Hastings Encyclopaedia of Reli
order of the Swazi kingdom will be regenerated “in lightness.” gion and Ethics. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
In this betwixt-and-between period, in this fruitful darkness, king Richards, A. I. 1956. Chisungu. London: Faber & Faber.
and people are closely identified. Tbere is a mystical solidarity be Turner, V. W. 1962. Chihamba, the White S1iirit (Rhodes-Livingstone
Paper 33). Manchester University Press.
tween them, which contrasts sharply with the hierarchical rank-domi
Warner, W. L. 1959. The Living and the Dead. New Haven: Yale
nated structure of ordinary Swazi life. It is only in darkness, silence,
University Press.
celibacy, in the absence of merriment and movement that the king Wilson, Monica. 1959. Divine Kings and the Breath of Men. London:
and people can thus be one. For every normal action is involved in the Cambridge University Press.
rights and obligations of a structure that defines status and establishes
social distance between men. Only in their Trappist sabbath of transi
tion may the Swazi regenerate the social tissues torn by conflicts
arising from distinctions of status and discrepant structural norms.
I end this study with an invitation to investigators of ritual to focus
their attention on the phenomena and processes of mid-transition. It is
these, I bold, that paradoxically expose the basic building blocks of
culture lust when we pass out of and before we re-enter the structural
realm. In sacerrima and their interpretations we have categories of
data that may usefully be handled by the new sophisticated tech
niques of cross-cultural comparison.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bettelheim, 3. 1954. Symbotic Wounds. Glencoe: Free Press.

Cicero, M. Tullius. 1959. Dc Legibus. Ed. by de Plinval. Paris: Les Belles
Lettres.
Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger. London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul.
Elwin, Verrier. The Religion of an Indian Tribe. London: Geoffrey
Cumberlege.
Gennep, A. van. 1960. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.