从礼仪到象征:阈限理论在西方学界的学术发展路径

阈限理论发端于范热内普的过渡礼仪研究,范热内普作为一位天才式的法国民族学家和民俗学家,长期被法国主流人类学和社会学界排斥。他对过渡礼仪的研究著作在其身后方被欧美学者重新发现,这其中,维克多·特纳极大地推动了阈限理论研究。近几十年来,西方学者进一步发展了阈限理论,寻求揭示复杂工业社会下的阈限时刻或境遇。以托马森、绍科尔采等为代表的学者已经从多个方面发展了阈限理论,认为阈限可以比拟人们熟知的机制、结构、秩序、话语等术语,此外,诸多学者也将阈限运用于管理学、教育学、跨国主义等学科中。故而,就阈限理论发展而言,它本来经典性地用于对仪式过程的分析,后来又被学者们扩展至诸种非仪式性研究中,具有广泛的象征意义,逐渐超越了人类学的研究范畴,被应用于国外人文社会科学领域。与之相关的过渡礼仪、近阈限、交融等概念也频繁见诸西方学者的多种研究论著中。

From Ritual to Symbol:Academic Development Path of Liminality Theory in Western Academia

Liminality Theory was originated from Passage of Rite by French ethnologist and folklorist Arnold Van Gennep,whom has long been excluded from the study of anthropology and sociology. His works on passage of rite were rediscovered by European and American scholars. Among them,Victor Turner has greatly promoted the research of liminal theory. In recent decades,western scholars have further developed it,seeking to reveal the threshold moment or situation in the complex industrial society. Some scholars,such as Bj?rn Thomassen and Arpad Szakolczai,have developed the research of liminal theory from many aspects. They believed that the concept of liminality could be compared with the well-known terms such as agency,structure,order and discourse. In addition,many scholars have also applied the concept to management,education,transnationalism and other disciplines. Therefore,as far as the development of liminal theory is concerned,it was classically used to analyze the passage of rite,and later extended to the study of various non ritual by scholars. It has a wide range of symbolic significance,gradually transcending the scope of anthropology,and has been applied to the field of foreign humanities and social sciences. The related concepts were also frequently appeared in various research works of western scholars.