ABSTRACT
Ritual will be seen as the occasion for both symbolizing and experiencing relationships in which spontaneity, affection, and unity replace unwanted law and compelled obedience. Ritual assumes community and must provide itself with an imaginary one if no other is present. Community will come to mean something like Victor Turner's idea of communitas. Turner seems to think of communitas as something like the soul or essence of ritual. It is less empirical but more substantive than what the term "community" denotes. The communal and free-playing qualities of ritual have been addressed most cogently by the late anthropologist Turner in his twin concepts of communitas and liminality. Liminality is characterized by a destructuring in relation to what Turner calls "social structure." The liminality of rituals means that they are informed, on the one hand, by a greater than usual sense of order and, on the other, by a heightened sense of freedom and possibility.
