Communitas: Changes On The Threshold

Anyone who has participated in a pilgrimage knows that it is something special. But they may not know about the concept of communitas. Communitas is a Latin noun that often refers to an unstructured society where people are equal, or to the spirit of society itself. Walking with strangers and sharing a goal with them leads you to create special bonds. A goal, a shared path and an unexpected affiliation can be magical.

Anthropologist Victor Turner studied this phenomenon. He believed that pilgrims could be divided into different stages. For him, pilgrimages involved leaving society and returning a changed person. Turner believed that the most important part of a pilgrimage is the society it creates. He called this special relationship communitas.

Transitional stages

The transition stages consist of three different phases that are connected in one way or another. These phases are separation, liminality and reincorporation. In the first phase, people separate from their social community. They leave their daily lives, both physically and symbolically. This phase consists of packing, saying goodbye, and exploring the upcoming experience.

The second phase, liminality, is when you actually make the pilgrimage. In this phase, the participants distance themselves from normal concepts of time and space. Time goes by differently and you stop checking it all the time. You can walk slower to enjoy the scenery and views. The present moment becomes more important than the future. In this phase, you share a common goal with other pilgrims. That goal may be to complete the pilgrimage or at least get to the next stop. These common goals lead to a common identity.

The last phase is reincorporation. This is the end of the pilgrimage. That’s when you get home to your normal routine. Your journey is over. Yet nothing is the same as it was before.

People who complete a pilgrimage tend to come home more relaxed. They often enjoy a new social status. They see routine and boring activities in a new light. The little things become more important and they enjoy the relationship with other people more.

What happens during pilgrimages that lead to this?

Communitas

Of the three stages of the passage phases, the second (liminality) is the most important. During this phase, something happens that changes you and the way you see the world. That something is communitas.

In liminality, previous social conditions do not exist. Your daily rules and restrictions disappear, and you enjoy a unique freedom. Your social status does not matter, your job does not matter. What you studied or how much you studied does not matter. It does not matter if you are religious or not. All pilgrims are equal.

Communitas, according to Turner, is the spirit of society. It is the feeling of social equality, solidarity and union. Basically, it is a human bond that consists of irrational egalitarian ties to other people. There is no reason for the other pilgrims to be your equals, but that’s exactly what ends up happening. In other situations, the same people would never become your friends. But here they become more than friends. It does not matter what you have in common in your ordinary life. Here and now is what matters. It is valuable.

Creation and destruction

Communitas is very intense. It increases your senses and activates your intuition. Emotions run very fast, and what is rational ceases to make sense. That said, this is a temporary condition and does not tend to last very long.

Communitas can also destroy order. In this state where normal social rules do not apply, you can end up in a chaotic state where destruction reigns. On the other hand , communitas can lead to creation. This liminal condition can help create new rules and values or help you recover values ​​that you have lost.

Communitas types

Turner differentiated between the different types of communitas : Existential or spontaneous, normative and ideological.

Spontaneous communitas take place during countercultural events. If you attend an event with rules that go against today’s cultural norms, you can experience it. Normative communitas occur when there is a need for social control. This type originates from spontaneous communitas. Pilgrimages fall into this category. Finally, ideological communitas are what you find in utopian societies. Everyone shares an ideal or utopia.

While spontaneous communitas occur outside social norms and social structure, normative and ideological communitas occur within. This is why spontaneous communitas are freer and promote most change.

To sum up, to voluntarily leave home, travel to new countries and experience new states of being, leads you to this type of community. The community overcomes the division between people and leads to social union. If you have experienced this, you already know how wonderful it is. If you do not have it, what are you waiting for?