Africa, Traditional Play in

Victor Turner

Turner helped develop symbolic anthropology and the dramaturgical approach in anthropology. In The Ritual Process, Turner talks about how people resolve conflicts in society in many ways, including play, in order to both express and eliminate conflict. He illustrates this with the Ndembu, the people of central Africa he lived among when he conducted field research. From his Ndembu research, he developed the notions of lim-inality and communitas. He writes about how in the Ndembu rite of installation of the highest Ndembu chief, the chief is in a “betwixt and between state,” out of ordinary time and space.

The chief is leaving his former status but has not yet moved into his new status. During this liminal period, commoners are revealed to have authority over the highest chief, and the highest chief is portrayed as a slave. The chief and his wife are dressed in ragged waistcoats. Turner says features like sexlessness, anonymity, sub-missiveness, silence, and sexual continence characterize liminality, both among the Ndembu and worldwide. He calls liminality the cultural manifestation of communitas, where people feel intensely intimate and experience equality with each other, creating an intense social bonding. He says we can see these elements among other African people: the Tallensi, the Nuer, and the Ashanti. He continues this approach in many works that also talk about his dramaturgical approach.

Using the dramaturgical approach, he writes about social drama among the Ndembu and others that he says plays a part in both ordinary life and large-scale events of life. He says that analyzing the stages of breach, crisis, redress, and réintégration allows one to understand Ndembu social organization and values. For Turner, examining drama allows him to understand traditional society.

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