THE APPLICATION OF VICTOR TURNER'S LIMINALITY AND SYMBOLOGY TO THE INSTALLATION OF OBAS AMONG THE YORUBA PEOPLE OF SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA
Keywords:
liminality, symbology, king-elect, Yoruba people, rites of passageAbstract
This article examines the concepts of liminality and symbology. It borrows from the works of Victor Turner on the two concepts and their application to the study of chief installation among the Ndembu people in Zambia. The article explains the application of liminality and symbology to the installation of kings among the Yoruba people of south western part of Nigeria. The liminality rites like shaving of head, prostrating before the people, wearing of white cloth around the waist, relating the history of the land, swallowing of bullets, and sexual abstinence were thoroughly explained in this article. The article also takes into cognisance, the concept of symbology. The process of ‘picking calabash’ by the king elect was discussed and the meanings of the items kept inside each of the calabashes were explained. The item that the king picks and the implication of this on his reign was also discussed. The article also treated the symbolic meanings of beaded crown and royal sceptre. Finally, the article recommended that anthropologist and ethnologists should exploit the concepts of liminality and symbology in other cultures of the world.
References
Bigger, Stephen. 2008. Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance. Journal of Belief and Values 30 (1): 1-5.
Brand Shaw, York W, Healey, Joseph F and Smith, Rebecca. 2001. Sociology. California: New Century Pine Forge Press.
Curran, Daniel and Renzetti, Claire M. 1998. Living Sociology. USA: Allyn and Bacon.
Charon, Joel M. 1998. Symbolic Interactionism. An Introduction, an Interpretation an Integration. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Giddens, Athony and Duneier, Mitchell. 2000. Introduction to Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Hughes, Michael and Kroehler Carolyn J. 2008. Sociology: The Core. New York: McGraw –Hill companies.
Johnson, Allan G. 1996. Human Arrangements: An Introduction to Sociology. USA: Brown and Benchmark.
Kendall, Diana. 1996. Sociology in our Times – Annotated Instructor’s Edition. USA: Wardsworth Publishing Company.
Schaefer, Richard T. 2008. Sociology. New York: McGraw – Hill Higher Education.
Shure, La Charles. 2005. What is Liminality?. Retrieved from www.liminality.org/about/what is liminality on 18-02-2014.
Turner, Victor. 1969. Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.
Turner, Victor. 1964. Betwixt and Between: The luminal period in Rites de Passage. The proceeding of the American Ethnological Society Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion: 4-20.
Turner Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theater: The human Seriousness of play. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications.
Turner, Victor. 1979. Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 6 (4): 465- 499.
Whitehead, Charles. 2004. Religious Experience and the Theory of Anti-Structure. Retrieved from www.socialmirrors.org on 19/03/2014.
