1. His enormous cross-disciplinary sphere of influence is evidenced in the appearance of many edited volumes indebted to his work (e.g. literary studies - Ashley 1990; pilgrimage - Morinis 1992a; psychoanalysis - Schwartz-Salent and Stein 1991; neuro-phenomenology - Laughlin et al 1990).
2. Liminoid genres are largely the product of a division between 'work' ('ergic') and 'leisure' ('anergic'). Citing Dumazedier (1962), Turner finds this division to have developed out of two conditions: wherein society no longer governs its activities through common ritual obligations, some activities, including work and leisure, become subject to individual choice; and where there has occurred a demarcation of work time from free time. Only in postindustrial culture do we find these conditions (1982b:36). In this new 'leisure time' one has 'freedom from' (established obligations to organisations, institutions and work) and 'freedom to' transcend, fantasise, experiment and play (to choose).
3. For which he is indebted to Marx via Gluckman - see Appendix B.1(v).
4. See Appendix B.1(iv).
5. Yet, since the sacred may be more nebulous than Turner's anti-structure allows, the latter concept becomes disputable. Take, for example, Schechner's understanding of play. Voicing dissatisfaction with Batesonian depictions of play (stabilised, localised and impermeable), Schechner (1993) suggests a shift beyond Turner's anti-structural, and therefore oppositional, play frame towards the ephemerality of 'playing': 'the ongoing, underlying process of off-balancing, loosening, bending, twisting, reconfiguring and transforming - the permeating, eruptive/disruptive energy and mood from below, behind, and to the sides of focused attention' (ibid:43). 'Banana time', he suggests, 'is always with us' (ibid:42).
6. He also suggests that in liminoid genres the 'play frame' (e.g. in theatre or sport) has become a very serious matter, and has 'to some extent inherited the function of the 'ritual frame' (1983a:105).
7. Others have also made such a distinction. Handelman (1990) discusses Firth's (1967:12) contrasting of 'ceremony' with 'ritual procedures' and that here the symbolic affirmation central to 'mirroring' is seen as more resembling a 'ceremony' than those procedures carried out to alter a situation. Firth's position also resonates with that of Gluckman and Gluckman (1977:233).
8. Turner's privileging 'ritual' as the quintessential forum for play is problematical. Play, in the sense of assuming roles, dressing 'up' and acting as if other - albeit in a hyperstructural/formal way - is not foreign to 'ceremony'. Occupying spaces between routine social life, ceremonies are also extra-ordinary events requiring role inversion and excess (e.g. hypermasculinity and femininity) (I am indebted to John Morton for making this apparent).
9. Although, Turner was not exactly a non-materialist. Opposed to the 'cognitive chauvinism' (Turner 1982d:21) and 'left-hemispheric imperialism' (Turner 1985f:275) of Levi-Strauss, he made some advancements on a 'neurosociology' (Appendix B.1(viii)) and found agreement with the ideas of Freud and Jung. Turner's early attention to the cognitive and affective dimensions of ritual symbolism has been highly influential (cf. Kapferer 1983; 1984b).
10. The model has been accepted by the commentators of a vast range of events and practices (e.g. Moore 1980; Lett 1983; Newton 1988; Lewis and Dowsey-Magog 1993; Hetherington 1993; Sardiello 1994; Palmer 1998).
11. Contestation can be discerned at variant pilgrimage destinations. Hetherington argues for Stonehenge's status as a contested space: 'a space with many actors who all wish to project their ideas about society, their utopics, through it' (1996b:162). Glastonbury presents another clear case. Variously, an 'English Jerusalem', a centre of 'Celtic renaissance' or 'a stronghold of hippy counterculture' (M. Bowman 1993:36,42), the town of Glastonbury has played host to a range of Christian denominations, Sufis, Buddhists, Bahais, members of ISKON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), New Age Travellers, self proclaimed Pagans and Druids (ibid:39).
12. Cohen has developed a model of interpreting cultural performances as frameworks of contestation and/or contexts for the expression of resistance - what he calls 'masquerade politics' (1993). Cohen's approach is essentially Marxist. For Cohen, it is universal practice for peoples to 'seek nonexplicit or diversionary, and therefore ceremonialised, ways of resolving' contradictions and conflicts (Parkin 1996:xix).
13. MacClancy argues that Turner may have corrected his approach had he read the little known paper of Robert Hertz on the Alpine pilgrimage to the Italian rock-shrine of St Besse published in France in 1913. According to Hertz' account, the cult of St Besse was far from a harmonious or spontaneous community. MacClancy informs us how five villages from two different valleys were associated with the cult, and that devotees 'are torn by wranglings, by conflicts of ambition, by struggles sometimes concealed, sometimes open, violent and even bloody' (Hertz 1983:63 in MacClancy 1994:35). The confusion arose (and continues to arise) out of competing interpretations of the Saint's biography - hagliographical inconsistencies - and disputes between village representatives over who should bear the ritual ornaments including the statue of the Saint. Unfortunately Hertz' paper, focusing as it did on the divisive as well as the cohesive aspects of this pilgrimage rite, and which seemed to challenge Durkheim's interpretation of ritual as a source of solidarity, had gone unnoticed by Turner.
14. Similar criticism has been levelled at Turner's earlier work on ritual symbolism. Kratz alludes to Turner's tendency to homogenise cultural meaning in ceremonial analyses, suggesting Bakhtin's notion of 'heteroglossia' (multiple voices) as a valuable tool to help understand the contested meanings and contradictory perspectives within cultural performances, and the tension between 'official' and 'unofficial' understandings of culture carried simultaneously by the same cultural form (Kratz 1994: 23-5).
15. Handelman details three types of public events, each possessing an 'internal logic of design' or 'meta-design'. These are events that 'model', 'present' and 'represent' the 'lived-in world'. 'Events that model', such as rites of passage and shamanic rites, effect a change of status and identity, or influence the cosmos, via the resolution or synthesis of contradictions and uncertainty. 'Events that present', like parades, strikes and state funerals, are occasions mirroring politics and symbolism, replicating social order. 'Events that represent', like carnivals and festivals, are unpredictable, often inverting and even subverting cultural and political order.
16. To be fair to Handelman, anticipating 'crosspollination' and 'mergers' he did qualify that 'the probability of a given, real event fitting neatly within one type is necessarily small' (1990:60).
17. See Appendix C for brief informant biographicals.
18. See Appendix D for emic elaborations of these characteristics.
19. Hakim Bey is a pseudonym of Peter Lamborn Wilson. Although he has written under the latter name, I will use the former. Bey maintains secrecy about his past. He has never made any public appearances as 'Hakim Bey'.
20. Described as 'the countercultural Bible of the 90s' (The Whole Earth Review 1994:61), The TAZ, along with most of Bey's other writings, are freely available on the web. See the following principle locations:
The Writings of Hakim Bey
Zero News Dataspool: Hakim Bey
Marius Watz' page
Zero News Dataspool: Peter Lamborn Wilson
21. For Bookchin (1995), such 'episodic rebellions' as The TAZ are 'merely a safety valve for discontent' from which the bourgeoisie have nothing to fear. He dismisses The TAZ as 'irrational', narcissistic, decadent and a 'bourgeois deception' demonstrating a mass retreat from the programmatic commitment of classical anarchism. Yet Watson (1996:ch.7) shows up shortcomings and contradictions in Bookchin's polemic.
22. See Appendix B.2 for a more comprehensive background on Bey - his influences, strategies and shifts.
23. With its roots in Situationism, Immediatism is essentially an 'outsider art' movement seeking to eliminate 'the gulf between the production and consumption of art'. It reaffirms the creative power of everyday life by withdrawing from the world of the market and commoditisation of art (1994a:8;Millenium 1996:8).
24. See Appendix B.2(ii) for an explanation of this.
25. This includes what he calls 'poetic terrorism' defined as 'largely nonviolent action that would have a psychological impact comparable to the power of a terrorist act - except that the act is one of consciousness changing' (Bey 1995a).
26. Though suspicious about electronic media and virtual reality, the Internet - or the aspect of it dubbed 'the Web' ('the alternate horizontal open structure of info-exchange') - is expounded as essential for the full realisation of the 'TAZ-complex'. 'The Web' provides logistical support for, and abets the manifestation of, the TAZ. For Bey, the TAZ must have a virtual durable 'location' in the Web as well as a temporary existence in actual time-space (1991a:115).
27. Of these, four types are outlined: spontaneous gatherings including 'anything from a party to a riot' (such as anarchist collectives, Neo-Pagan celebrations, raves, Rainbow tribe gatherings, gay faerie circles, brief urban riots or 'the Be-ins' of the sixties); the horizontal potlatch (gift exchange such as 'the orgy' or 'the banquet'); the Bee - a group united by a shared passion (e.g. a creative collaboration like a 'quilting bee' or an affinity group for a direct action), and; the 'Immediatist Tong' (the Chinese Tong is a model for non-hierarchical, clandestine mutual benefit associations) (1994a; The Criminal Bee 1993a).
28. Due in part to ConFest's internal safety mechanisms, uniformed police presence is remarkably minimal for such large populations gathering on traditional holiday periods.
29. Though Bey's individualist anarchist derivations and prescriptions distinguish his work from Turner's limen project, there are obvious and sometimes striking parallels. See Appendix B.3 for a comparison.
30. The question then arises - by vivifying ConFest, does my research render it vulnerable? Or, is this project an unwarranted invasion of privacy? I would like to think not. I have been very careful about what I have made known. Often, it is that which my informants have requested. DTE and most ConFesters have given positive support to my project, and have been provided opportunity to offer feedback and generally acknowledge the benefit of promoting this kind of 'experience' (they have even 'commissioned' a film maker). Of course, Bey himself became caught in the dilemma of representation - he cannot avoid mediation in order to communicate his message.
31. This should not be taken to mean that all rites of passage have predictable outcomes.
32. See also Appendix B.1(v).