Emily Cole: Image and Pilgrimage, Appendix A: Types of Communitas

The word communitas immediately prompted me to my Latin dictionary, and there I found the entry “communis, -is, -e, universal, common.” Though it is not an exact translation, I can only assume these two words are connected, especially from its definition. Communitas is defined as a social antistructure, combining the qualities of lowliness, sacredness, homogeneity, and comradeship (p. 250). According to Turner’s book, there are three specific types of communitas: spontaneous, normative, and ideological. Spontaneous communitas can also be thought of as existential, and is the opposite of social structure. Normative uses ethical and legal concepts in order to preserve the spontaneous nature of communitas. Lastly, the ideological type is considered the formulation of characteristics in order to form a utopian blueprint for the reform of society. With this cycle of three types of communitas, societies that adhere to them go through a transformation, one example being a religious vision turning into a sect, which then forms a church, and eventually a political system. After this, the cycle of communitas will begin again.