Victor Turner has been one of the most influential anthropologists of religion in the 20th century. Especially his writings on ritual have influenced a wide variety of disciplines. Turner started his career whith a study of the Ndembu in Central Africa, but later, his interests shifted to world religions and mass society. He argued that the dialectical relationship of ritual to social structure is the same in all societies and may therefore serve as a general concept of analysis and interpretation. Turner's idea to conceive ritual not as a conservative forte but as a change agent in society soon became so popular that it stimulated a vivid discussion in and outside the scholarly world. This article tries to outline the reasons for the influence of Victor Turner's basic concepts twenty years after his death.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 2003/Nr.7/8 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2003)

---

Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Förster, Till

Schlagwörter: Symbol Ritual Theorie Ethnologie Turner, Victor