Ant 373
Magic and Religion
Spring 2001
Professor Burdick
Question to reflect on while reading Sallnow’s article “Communitas Reconsidered”
In the 1970s, Victor Turner developed the theory that the main objective of
pilgrimages, throughout the world, was to serve as a very special rite of passage, in which
pilgrims would go through three experientially powerful phases. First, they would
experience separation from their everyday social role and lives (the removal from
“structure”). Then they would enter the moving, liminal state of the pilgrimage itself, in
which they experienced intense feeling of absolute equality with their fellow pilgrims
(“anti-structure” or “communitas”), despite any social differences they might have
experienced back in the world of “structure”. Importantly, this experience of communitas
the pilgrims interpreted as the presence of the divine. Thus renewed and refreshed, the
pilgrims were ready for the third phase, the return from “anti-structure” back to
“structure”. Because they had gone through the experience of comunitas, returning
pilgrims would become better, more fraternal members of society.
The Turner model of pilgrimage has been very influential, and has also drawn criticism
from scholars who wish to complicate it. What is Sallnow’s criticism of Turner’s model?
Upon what evidence does he develop his criticism? How do both Turner’s model and
Sallnow’s criticism help you understand a pilgrimage in which you have participated?
Can Sallnow’s analysis be extended beyond pilgrimages to other kinds of religious
rituals, which may “talk a good game”, as it were, of purity and spirituality, but that in
fact are vehicles for social distinction and competition?
Glossary for Sallnow article
Sallnow’s article is full of specialized, jargony language. Here is my best effort to help
you wend your way through the thicket of terminology:
Existential communitas – according to anthropologist Victor Turner, the universal
experience of total human equality, often experienced during the liminal phase of a rite of
passage
Normative communitas – acc. to Turner, any rituals that make the experience of
communitas into a routine: thereby perhaps taking away its excitement, but also making
sure that it is always potentially available
Ecologically – having to do with the natural environment
Monolingualism – having fluency in only one language
Mestizo – in Peru, someone of mixed Indian and European ancestry
Reversionary rights – upon the death of a landholder, the land reverts to the holding of
the whole community/village
Patrilateral kin – the relatives that someone traces through their father
Ecclesiastical – having to do with church structures
Cargo system – a system that exists in many Latin American peasant communities, in
which local power-holders gain their authority by hosting religious festivals
Liturgical inventory – list of saints used in rituals
Syntagmatic differentiation – any way by which neighboring things – from words to
villages – are kept distinct from each other
Eponymous – name-giving (i.e., something is “eponymous” if its name is bestowed on
something else)
Pyramidally structured microcosm – a small-scale version of anything that resembles a
pyramid
Morphology – the physical features of
Catchment – the area in which users of something live (as in the devotees of a shrine)
Iconologically – having to do with visual imagery
Topographical – having to do with features of the physical landscape
Theophany – the physical appearance of a divinity
Thaumaturgic – having healing powers
Cosmologies – fundamental beliefs about how the cosmos is ordered
Universalistic – anyone may frequent the shrine
Provenance – where the devotees come from
Intermontane – valleys between the mountains
Novena – the nine days surrounding a religious (Catholic) festival or holy day
Octave – the eight days surrounding a religious (Catholic) festival or holy day
Theogany – beliefs about the emergence of gods
Votive offering – an offering made in fulfillment of a vow
Ethnically diacritical – features of dress or behavior that are symbolic of the identity of
an ethnic group
Ethos – the values that pervade the atmosphere of a social group
Nepotism – the practice of keeping offices and privileges within a family
Semiologically – having to do with symbolic meanings
Microcosm and macrocosm – the smallest geographical area that holds meaning for local
people, vs. the largest geographical area that holds meaning for local people
Lexical and iconic – having to do with names and images
Extalocal – outside of the immediate, local place
Levelling – rendering equal
Simmelian – in the ways described by George Simmel, French sociologist
A priori – beliefs held independent of any evidence
Dialectical – interactive