His major Works (Part Three of the series)

§  Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 1969. 

§  Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure. Walter De Gruyter Inc. 1969.

§  Turner, Victor. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 1975. 

§  Turner, Victor. Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 1975.

§  Turner, Victor. Secular Ritual. Assen: Van Gorcum. 1977. 

§  Turner, Victor Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. New York: Columbia University. 1978. 

§  Turner, Victor. The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes Among the Ndembu of Zambia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 1981. (original 1968).

§  Turner, Victor. From Ritual to Theater: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: PAJ Publications. 1982. 

§  Turner, Victor. On the Edge of the Bush: Anthropology as Experience. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona. 1986. 

Turner, Victor. Schism and Continuity in an African Society: A Study of Ndembu Village Life. Berg Publishers. 1996. (Original 1957).

Biography of Victor Witter Turner (Part 2 of the series)

Victor Witter Turner was born on 28, May 1920 in Glasgow, Scotland as the son of Captain Norman Turner and Violet Witter. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother an actress and also the founding member of the Scotland’s national theater. The influence of his mother can be inferred from his lifelong interest in drama and performance. At the age of 11, Turner left Scotland and went with his divorced mother to live with his maternal grandparents in Bournemouth, England. After attending Bournemouth Grammar School, he studied English language and literature at University College of London (1938-41).

At 29, he received a bachelor honors degree in anthropology. He left London for university of Manchester to do his graduate studies under Max Gluckman. Max Gluckman was the director of Rhodes Livingstone institute and in association with this institute he conducted field work among the Ndembu of Zambia. He began by examining the demographics and economics of the tribe but then shifted to ritual.

From then on his interest in rituals made him to focus on it and completed his PhD in June 1955. His dissertation was on ‘Schism and continuity in an African Society: a study of Ndembu village life’.

Turner’s American life began in 1961 at Stanford University. He returned to Manchester a year later but his interest in American academic life led him to accept an appointment at Cornell University in 1964 where he completed 3 books and conducted a field work among the Gisu of Uganda.

Turner moved to Chicago University in 1968 as the professor of anthropology and social thought. There his interests shifted from tribal to world religions, more generally, from small scale to mass societies.

His final academic position was at the University of Virginia. There he became more interested in performative play and experimental theater as a modern form of liminality.

Victor Turner died on December 18, 1983.

Victor Witter Turner (A short description about an athropologist and Religionswissenscaftler) Part 1.

Introduction

Victor Witter Turner is a British anthropologist, better he can be called as a Scottish born American anthropologist and a comparative religionist. He studied the rituals and culture on the basis of his field work among the Ndembu of Zambia. So later, he became famous as a very influential ethnologist. He is also known for developing the concept of ‘liminality’, first introduced by Arnold van Gennep. He is remembered for coining the term ‘communitas’. His works revealed about the social change, both from the point of view of the individual experience and the development of common beliefs that characterize the social group. The metaphor of ‘social drama’ tells us further about the process of social change, better to call it a ritual process.

In this humble attempt I try to explain or discuss further some notions especially, social drama, ritual, ‘liminality’ and ‘communitas’, the ritual process, symbolism and also the relation between religion and ritual. This cannot be called as a perfect scientific attempt but I am sure that this little attempt will result in getting the basic notions and ideas in Victor Turner’s theory.