Born Again… and Again and Again

Communitas and Social Change among Jamaican Pentecostalists

Datos Bibliográficos

ID17535282
AutoresDiane J Austin (autor de correspondencia)
Año1981
Volumen37
Número3
Páginas226-246
Fecha de publicación1981-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/jar.37.3.3629725
OpenAlexW778010620
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14

The ritual of Jamaican pentecostalists is examined to show the nature of a communitas that inheres in their congregations. It is argued that this communitas, far from being a force for social change in the believers' lives, is indicative of their subordinate social position. The analysis supports the view that the locus of social change cannot be found in man's capacity to symbolize. This only appears to be the case when symbolic and structural realms of social life are made to form a simple dichotomy. A critical assessment is offered of Victor Turner's concept of communitas, and its use in the analysis of ritual

Communitas · Liminality · Political science · Social change · Social life · Sociology · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology