Victor Turner

It remained Turner’s task, based on van Gennep’s recognition of the structural similarities of rites of elevation, initiation, healing, incorporation, and transience, to show how this system operated as a way of marking life process

This passage locates Turner’s foundational contribution as the systematic ethnographic elaboration of van Gennep’s structural insight into rites of passage as markers of lived life-process among the Ndembu.

Victor Turner, Victor Witter Turner, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966thesis

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Victor Turner (1920-1983) was not only a great teacher and scholar but a star performer on the lively academ

This passage introduces Turner as both intellectual authority and cultural performer, framing The Ritual Process as the central document of his scholarly legacy.

Victor Turner, Victor Witter Turner, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966thesis

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This can be seen clearly in the tribal societies that have come under the careful scrutiny of such noted anthropologists as Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner. There are carefully constructe

Moore deploys Turner alongside van Gennep as empirical anthropological witnesses to the existence of structured initiatory processes, using their authority to ground Jungian claims about the psychological necessity of male initiation.

Moore, Robert, King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, 1990thesis

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colors, no less than numbers, must be considered archetypal powers. ‘They provide a kind of primordial classification of reality.’ They are like ‘forces’ ‘biologically, psychologically, and logically prior,’ says Victor Turner.

Hillman enlists Turner’s ethnological claim about the primacy of color as classificatory force to argue that alchemical color symbolism operates at an archetypal rather than merely cultural level.

Hillman, James, Alchemical Psychology, 2010supporting

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Professor Turner’s Lectures considered areas not dealt with extensively by Morgan, and in this revision he has explored even further than he did originally.

This passage documents the institutional occasion of The Ritual Process — the Morgan Lectures — positioning Turner’s work as a creative extension of the Morgan anthropological tradition into the territory of ritual symbolism.

Victor Turner, Victor Witter Turner, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966supporting

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Ritual of status elevation, 166-168, 170-172 of status reversal, 177-178, 183-185

This index entry maps the conceptual architecture of Turner’s ritual typology, indicating the range of ritual categories — status elevation, reversal, liminal process — that structure his analytical framework.

Victor Turner, Victor Witter Turner, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966aside

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