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Communitas

The Anthropology of Collective Joy

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. Edith Turner
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Part of the book series: Contemporary Anthropology of Religion (CAR)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Introduction

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 1-11

  3. Contrasts: Communitas and False Communitas

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 13-22

  4. Festivals: July 4th, Carnival, and Clown

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 23-42

  5. Music and Sport: Being in the Zone

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 43-54

  6. The Communitas of Work: Surprising Conclusions

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 55-72

  7. The Communitas of Disaster

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 73-84

  8. The Sacredness of the People: The Communitas of Revolution and Liberation

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 85-110

  9. The Communitas of Nonviolence

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 111-141

  10. The Communitas of Nature

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 143-165

  11. Rites of Passage: Communitas in Times of Change

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 167-196

  12. Alignment: Turn the Key and the Door Opens

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 197-218

  13. Conclusion

    • Edith Turner
    Pages 219-223

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 225-258
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Keywords

About this book

Communitas is inspired fellowship; a group's pleasure in sharing common experiences; being 'in the zone' - as in music, sport, and work; the sense felt by a group when their life together takes on full meaning. The experience of communitas, almost beyond strict definition and with almost endless variations, often appears unexpectedly.

Reviews

"A monument to the serial careers of a remarkable anthropological couple." Barbara Tedlock, professor of Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo

"Just suppose someone did know just exactly what community is, and how to resolve its complexities by revealing the communitas behind it, that would be Edie Turner, and this book would be the way she does it, for once and for all, and this time for real." Roy Wagner, professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia

About the author

Edith Turner is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Virginia, USA, specializing in the study of ritual, religion, and consciousness. She has been researching the field of symbol/ritual for nearly 60 years - formerly in collaboration with her husband, renowned anthropologist Victor Turner - and has conducted fieldwork in Zambia, Northern Alaska, rural Ireland, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia. She was editor in chief of the journal, A+nthropology and Humanism , and is author of Heart of Lightness: The Life of an Anthropologist (2006), Among the Healers: Stories of Spiritual and Ritual Healing around the World (2005), and a contributor to Shamanism: A Reader (2003).

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