Liminality, from Victor Turner via van Gennep, is the transitional 'threshold' phase of a ritual in which participants are between social states, freed from normal structure and open to transformation.

How is everyday life a performance?

In Goffman's view, people continually present versions of themselves to others, managing appearances much as actors do, with 'front-stage' behavior for audiences and 'back-stage' regions where the performance is relaxed.

Ritual and Social Performance

Ritual and social performance examine how rituals, ceremonies, and the staged behavior of everyday life function as performances that structure community, identity, and social order.

Definition

The study of ritual, ceremony, and everyday social behavior as forms of performance that organize community and identity.

Scope

This topic covers the analysis of ritual and ceremony as performance, the relationship between ritual process and theatre, and the dramaturgical study of everyday social interaction. It draws on Victor Turner's theories of social drama and liminality, Erving Goffman's account of the presentation of self, and Richard Schechner's mapping of the ritual–theatre continuum, treating performance as a fundamental mode of social and cultural action.

Core questions

How do rituals work as performances, and what do they accomplish?
How are ritual process and theatrical performance related?
How is everyday social life performed and staged?
What is liminality and why does it matter for performance?

Key concepts

ritual
social drama
liminality
rite of passage
front stage and back stage
impression management

Key theories

Social drama and liminality: Victor Turner's model of social drama—breach, crisis, redress, reintegration—and the liminal phase of ritual, in which normal structure is suspended and transformation becomes possible.
Dramaturgical theory of everyday life: Erving Goffman's analysis of social interaction as performance, in which individuals manage impressions through front-stage and back-stage behavior to present a self to others.

History

The study of ritual and social performance draws on the anthropology of ritual, including van Gennep's rites of passage and Turner's elaboration of liminality, and on Goffman's dramaturgical sociology of the 1950s; these strands converged in performance studies, where ritual and everyday interaction are analyzed alongside theatre as related forms of performed behavior.

Debates

Continuum or boundary between ritual and theatre: Scholars debate whether ritual and theatre lie on a single continuum, as Schechner and Turner suggest, or differ fundamentally in efficacy, belief, and the role of the spectator.

Key figures

Victor Turner
Erving Goffman
Arnold van Gennep
Richard Schechner

Seminal works

turner1982
goffman1959
schechner2013

Frequently asked questions

What is liminality?: Liminality, from Victor Turner via van Gennep, is the transitional 'threshold' phase of a ritual in which participants are between social states, freed from normal structure and open to transformation.
How is everyday life a performance?: In Goffman's view, people continually present versions of themselves to others, managing appearances much as actors do, with 'front-stage' behavior for audiences and 'back-stage' regions where the performance is relaxed.