Emily Cole: Image and Pilgrimage, Chapter 1: Introduction, Pilgrimage as a Liminoid Phenomenon

A rite of passage, usually associated with an unorthodox ritual or extreme task for young people, is divided into three stages: separation, limen or margin, and aggregation. This first phase, according to Turner’s book Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, is some sort of symbolic behavior “signifying the detachment of the individual or group,” (p. 2) from the culture’s social structure (a cultural “state.”) The second liminal phase is when the subject of the rite (called the laminar or passenger) becomes ambiguous, culturally neither here nor there. The passenger is passing through a realm or dimension unlike anything of the previous or future state, “between all familiar lines of classification” (p. 2). The third and final stage of the rite of passage is considered the consummation; thus the passenger is returning to the normal secular or mundane social life. The ritual subject “has rights and obligations of a clearly defined structural type,” which I’m assuming means that they are now responsible and accountable for whatever an adult or elder of the community is. In Turner’s words, the subject is “expected to behave in accordance with the customary norms and ethical standards appropriate to his settled state,” and depending on the culture, this may or may not include voting or property rights, marriage expectations, and treatment from parents as they transition from their youth into adulthood.