Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors : Symbolic Action in Human Society /
Victor Turner.
- Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, (c)2018.
- 1 online resource : 3 maps, 3 charts
- Symbol, Myth and Ritual .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Contents -- lllustrations -- Preface -- CHAPTER 1. Social Dramas and Ritual Metaphors -- CHAPTER 2. Religious Paradigms and Political Action: Thomas Becket at the Council of Northampton -- CHAPTER 3. Hidalgo: History as Social Drama -- CHAPTER 4. The Word of the Dogon -- CHAPTER 5. Pilgrimages as Social Processes -- CHAPTER 6. Passages, Margins, and Poverty: Religious Symbols of Communitas -- CHAPTER 7. Metaphors of Anti-structure in Religious Culture -- lndex
In this book, Victor Turner is concerned with various kinds of social actions and how they relate to, and come to acquire meaning through, metaphors and paradigms in their actors' minds; how in certain circumstances new forms, new metaphors, new paradigms are generated. To describe and clarify these processes, he ranges widely in history and geography: from ancient society through the medieval period to modern revolutions, and over India, Africa, Europe, China, and Meso-America. Two chapters, which illustrate religious paradigms and political action, explore in detail the confrontation between Henry II and Thomas Becket and between Hidalgo, the Mexican liberator, and his former friends. Other essays deal with long-term religious processes, such as the Christian pilgrimage in Europe and the emergence of anti-caste movements in India. Finally, he directs his attention to other social phenomena such as transitional and marginal groups, hippies, and dissident religious sects, showing that in the very process of dying they give rise to new forms of social structure or revitalized versions of the old order.