Turner, Victor

(1920-83)

A British social anthropologist who elaborated the study of rituals and symbolism . His main fieldwork was among the Ndembu in Africa, where he made detailed interpretations of colour symbols, rites of passage , and healing ceremonies, as well as a micro-study of village politics (see Schism and Continuity in an African Society, 1957, and The Forest of Symbols, 1967). Developing Arnold van Gennep's idea of limen or threshold, he explored the concept of liminality in pilgrimage and Western society, in The Ritual Process (1969).