Crystal Kernan #5 Image and Pilgrimage

During the course of this semester, we have discussed community versus communitas in great detail. Communitas is made up of a small group of people that come in contact through true confrontation. It is considered to be immediate and have no real purpose. On the other hand, a community is made up of a larger group of people and has a mediate purpose. There is common objective or reason between the people of a community. Through video and pictures, we have seen the aspect of communitas primarily take place on the trail. At first you question how communitas forms in such a way? Communitas just seems to happen naturally. Some people go out on the trail knowing nobody around them and somehow form relationships that are closer than kinship. At the end of the trail, the hikers that have been together during their journey do not want to depart from these people and go their seperate ways. You may live in a tight community but in comparison, communitas is a much stronger bond.