The Journey Towards A Career As Ritual — A Brief Exploration Of The Ritualization Of The Journey Towards A Career By Way Of Victor Turner

There are a great many things that can be said to be ritual. There are the native and tribal rituals that we so often read about in ethnological accounts, and the religious rituals that some of us participate in on weekends – sometimes on weekends for those more committed. There are those rituals that we see dramatized in movies, such as the classic rites read from Roman rituals every time there is an exorcism. In fact, the ritual has become so pervasive in our society that we will often make references to sacrificing chickens, or reciting a chant when we joke about ways in which to influence the outcomes of events in our lives. But we must tread lightly, for there is a line – seemingly finer amongst scholars – between a ritual, and something that is ritualized. Horace Miner, in a brilliant spoof of the dangers of blurring that very line, taught us in Body Rituals of the Nacirema that while not everything is ritual, almost anything could be ritualized.

Victor Turner made a career of fine-tuning the language that we use in the discourse of ritual, and it is through this parlance that I will briefly explore the journey towards a career as ritual – or perhaps the more accurate term is ritualized action. So, is the title of this paper misleading? The journey towards a career in the way that I will be speaking about it is ritualized, but is not ritual. I do call it ritual, however, because I will be using Turner’s language for rituals to examine the concepts within the journey.

There are a great many things that can be said to be ritual. There are the native and tribal rituals that we so often read about in ethnological accounts, and the religious rituals that some of us participate in on weekends – sometimes on weekends for those more committed. There are those rituals that we see dramatized in movies, such as the classic rites read from Roman rituals every time there is an exorcism. In fact, the ritual has become so pervasive in our society that we will often make references to sacrificing chickens, or reciting a chant when we joke about ways in which to influence the outcomes of events in our lives. But we must tread lightly, for there is a line – seemingly finer amongst scholars – between a ritual, and something that is ritualized. Horace Miner, in a brilliant spoof of the dangers of blurring that very line, taught us in Body Rituals of the Nacirema that while not everything is ritual, almost anything could be ritualized

Victor Turner made a career of fine-tuning the language that we use in the discourse of ritual, and it is through this parlance that I will briefly explore the journey towards a career as ritual – or perhaps the more accurate term is ritualized action. So, is the title of this paper misleading? The journey towards a career in the way that I will be speaking about it is ritualized, but is not ritual. I do call it ritual, however, because I will be using Turner’s language for rituals to examine the concepts within the journey.

Ritual or Ritualized

Before we begin our exploration, it is probably best to have clearer definitions of ritual and ritualized. According to Victor Turner, Ritual is, “Prescribed formal behaviour for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings and powers” (Deflem 1991: 5) In other words, consistent behaviour for certain situations that are outside of the mundane, and somewhat tied to the supernatural. The term ritualized, on the other hand, refers to the making of something into ritual. This definition can be somewhat problematic though, since not all the components of ritual are necessarily present when we ritualize behaviour. Often times, things that we may call ritual are actually more like contextualized behaviour. There was probably a time in which work in general would have incorporated more ritual in its proper sense. As Pierre Bouvier remarks, “Godelier points out that in primitive and peasant societies ‘work is a double operation which has a technical aspect as well as a magical and ritual one”(Bouvier1984: 33). While the notions of magic and ritual may have been more prevalent in the past, in this day and age, with the positivistic worldview that science has endowed upon us, we are hard pressed to see the magic or ritual in work. The separation of church and state would probably spell the end of ritual in work from Turner’s definition, since the presence of religion becomes necessary for the definition to hold true. In terms of the journey towards a career, I would also have to concede the point that in the end it is ritualized, but there are ways in which this pathway fits into Turner’s processual model for ritual. Turner gives us another definition that is perhaps more apropos the subject of this discussion. He contends that ritual is “a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and designed to influence preternatural entities or forces on behalf of the actors’ goals and interests” (Deflem 1991: 6) While no definition of ritual proper will suffice for ritualized action, we can more easily apply this definition if we forego the preternatural elements of the definition. So let us modify that definition to ritualized action so that it reads, “a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and designed to enable the actors’ goals and interests.”

Before we begin our exploration, let us set the stage with the precursor to the journey, the myths of work.

The myths of work

Long before we start our journey towards our careers we learn of the myths of work. As a common theme, parents and other figures of authority strive to teach us what has come to be known as the protestant work ethic – an idiom that teaches us that all things come through hard work and determination. These types of myths set the stage for the expectations that will be placed upon us when we enter the work force into our career of choice. George Herbert Mead wrote about the notions of play and games in childhood as a way for children to explore and develop a sense of self (Macionis). By trying out the different roles in society such as policeman, doctor, robber, etc., children learn the rules of power and hierarchy in society, as well as what kids of behaviour are acceptable and expected in society as a whole. Through the performative actions of play, children begin to develop the myths around work as far as expectations of work from social and cultural perspectives. As per our definition for ritualized action, this stereotyped play performed in the sequestered reality that children fabricate around role playing allows the, to explore the different limitations of each of the roles they enter into, in so doing, allowing them to feel which ones they have more of an affinity towards. We learn from society and the cultures that we are immersed in about what will be expected from us as adults.

As children we are aware of our parents working, and in some cases we may even be able to see and know what it is they do. The myths of work are impressed upon us as we hear stories of people and situations at the office, and we reap the benefits of work through holidays and material goods facilitated by wages.

During the tween[1] years, some may take on part-time jobs with paper routes or we may begin the early stages of apprenticeship in rural or family-business type settings. In this kind of work we learn about the importance of deadlines and the concepts of opportunity cost – as in the cost of doing one thing versus another. During this time we learn the importance of leisure time, and the freedom that money gives us to enjoy it. In a way, the moral of the work ethic keeps reinforcing itself as we grow older, and begin to realize that we can reap more benefits the more we apply ourselves. And as we are trying on these roles for size, we are also being asked with increasing frequency what it is that we want to do when we grow up. And so it is that we begin to formulate ideas of what we would like to do. I recently asked my mother what it was that I had wanted to be when I was very young and she told me that at one point I wanted to be a convict so that I would get to wear the striped outfit, and that Zorro – though less of a career and more of a lifestyle – was also at the top of my list. Later on in my high school years, I wanted to be a lawyer, then a marine biologist. I ended up becoming a graphic designer, and am now on my way to becoming a bona fide anthropologist. So much for continuity. The point is that in our formative years, we learn about the myths of what is to have a career, and we learn the importance of choosing something that will make us successful. It is through these myths that we prepare ourselves to enter into the journey of a career.

Ritualizing the journey

The journey towards a career fits quite well with Turner’s processual approach to ritual, in which we go through pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal stages of experience (Alexander 1998: 147). We enter a short pre-liminal state as we prepare for our post-secondary education, choosing the knowledge that we want imparted upon us. The liminal phase is marked by our entry into the post-secondary system, as we navigate through social relationships and the knowledge that is imparted upon us while we refine the direction that we want to follow for our career. Finally, the post-liminal phase begins when we graduate, and we begin to learn how to apply our theory into practice as we start our first job in our chosen field. Our role within the profession is increasingly defined as we gain more experience, and while in the beginning we are not quite an autonomous professional we become increasingly knowledgeable in the performative aspects of the profession. It could be said that at this stage one begins a new cycle of ritual as a professional much the same way that once we are born we begin a new cycle into childhood, followed by our teens, and so on. In a metaphorical sense the journey towards a career could be interpreted as a life-crisis ritual since the end result is the death of adolescence and the birth of adulthood. This does represent, after all, a ritual of maturation (Deflem 1991:8) in modern society. But what are lacking from Turner’s proper definition of ritual are the religious/supernatural aspects.

Victor Turner identified three components of liminality: communication of sacra, ludic deconstruction and recombination of familiar cultural configurations, and simplification of the social structure (Deflem 1991: 14) It is through these terms that we will look at the process of liminality in the journey towards a career.

Pre-Liminality – Getting in

At the end of our secondary school career, the communication of sacra symbolically takes place during graduation, at which time a teacher or administrator and a valedictorian will give a heart felt speech, expounding on the potential of the graduating class, and in so doing, reinforcing the expectation for them all to become contributing members to the society they are a part of. During our tenure at secondary school, we increasingly learn the importance of grades. It is these grades that become the gatekeepers to us attending the post-secondary institutions of our choice. If a student has proven his worthiness as a pupil, he or she will be accepted into a post-secondary institution to begin studies in their career of choice. It could be said that the grade point average (GPA) is ritually symbolic of the key to success, but since that key can be pretty flexible in terms of the types of post-secondary institutions that one will get into, it has less of an effect on the group for whom it is intended to affect. Nonetheless, there are limits to how flexible the GPA can be, and as such holds at least some power in the minds of the student group – at least those interested in a post-secondary education.

In terms of ludic deconstruction, school at this level is still quite foundational in the sense that new knowledge is being built upon previous knowledge gained from primary school onwards. If anything, the deconstruction happens at the beginning of high school when students begin to split off into different subgroups typically based on common interests and arbitrary levels of perceived popularity amongst the student body. It could also be said that this deconstruction begins with an increasing amount of autonomy for the students as they progress through the grades, something that prepares them for the more or less full autonomy that they will enjoy in college, but this too is foundational and incremental.

The simplification of the social structure is also a carry-over from primary school in terms of the structure of teachers and administrators having authority over the whole student body. Also, the simplification briefly stops in the period between the end of the last school year in high school, and the beginning of the first year in University. If anything, the whole thing gets un-simplified during that period, and re-simplified when the first University year begins.

From a liminal perspective, at the end of the post-secondary school phase, the individual becomes “detached from an earlier set of social conditions” (Deflem 1991: 8). The individual is no longer considered a child, and is now looked at with an air of expectancy to see what he will make of himself while immersed in his studies.  Having been accepted  into a university, the individual chooses courses, and a preliminary major course of study. There is also a detachment from earlier social conditions for the individual at home, in the sense that any existing curfews are typically lifted, and a greater amount of autonomy is granted to the individual in the weeks before entry into school. This is perhaps to allow the individual as well as the parents to adjust to the comings and goings of their young adult, as the life crisis ritual could also metaphorically apply to the parents, as they are losing their child to the tribe of adulthood.

Liminality – Away at school

Once school starts, Typically at universities, there are all kinds of initiation activities during “frosh week” to inculcate the new recruits into their new environs. This orientation is both spatial and psychological, invoking a sort of culture shock in a concentrated dose. The communication of sacra in this stage is done by mentoring peers and by professors and administrators. Different schools such as engineering may have their own sacred symbols that they share with their initiates, and the administration lays out the rules of comport in this new seemingly rule-free environment. The ritual symbols can work in terms of Turner’s definition as long as they are held to. The main difference here is that the membership that is implied by the sharing of ritual symbols can be taken away by the administrators or can be rejected by the individual with few consequences – unless it is as a result of moral transgressions – and as a result, a lot of the symbolic sacra is not so sacred in terms of upholding the social structure. In other words, unless there is a transgression against the policies of the university in terms of behaviour and/or academics, the individuals are free to move between different areas of interest, gaining access to new ritual symbols very time they do so with little effect to the whole structure. In fact, if there is a place to be doing a lot of experimenting it is during this phase. The assumption is that they will have learned enough about expectations for timeliness and perseverance to allow them to succeed through this liminal stage.

Where the communication of the sacra does hold true is in the academic instruction. The academic instruction is essentially the knowledge by which one will be judged as worthy of entering into and staying in a profession. In this sense, the term holds its strength since the quality of the instruction, and the individual’s ability to retain an internalize the knowledge do contribute to the upholding of the social structures inherent in having professions and roles in society in the first place.

The ludic deconstruction at this point comes from instruction. It is through the exploration of case studies in the extreme that we are first forced to reflect upon our position in the world and our contributions to it. It is likely in this phase that we will gain a lot of the passion towards our chosen field of study as a way of mitigating and avoiding those extreme examples. In a way, the extreme examples also reinforce the social expectation for us to contribute to society by maintaining the social structures through the maintaining or improving of the status quo. Some universities, or departments within universities may have a particular ideological bent on what they teach, and as a result, may impart knowledge in the context of that worldview. This could also be interpreted as a deconstruction of the old ways of thinking, especially if it is contrary to the way an individual was raised. Perhaps the most important part of the ludic deconstruction phase is the fact that individuals are taught that no one else should do their thinking for them; they should think for themselves.

As I mentioned previously, the social structure is re-simplified for the individuals once they begin their first year at university. But the term begins to lose hold in this context because although there is still the dichotomy between the student body and the figures of authority, there are enough added layers of governance that resemble the “real world”, that the simplified is in fact not so simple.

Post-Liminal – Graduating into career

Once graduation comes around again, we will again hear a heart felt speech, and this time if we’re lucky it will be from some celebrity or high achiever who was convinced to come and validate the effectiveness of his or her alma mater in preparing the graduating class for their entry into full-fledged adulthood. There are still a few professions that bestow upon their initiates a symbol of their achievement, and their membership into a fraternity of common knowledge – engineers and their pinky rings come to mind. Overall, the communication of sacra in the post liminal stage is encoded into the degree that you receive, informing the holder that they not only possess the knowledge, but are also subject to all the obligations and responsibilities that it entails. This kind of responsibility, however, only applies to those in the more specialized professions such as law, accounting, medicine, engineering, etc. While I do not wish to detract from the sense of accomplishment that a person with a general arts degree may feel, the accountability for knowledge that we may hold that person will be equally generalized – at least until they enter into a position the holds them to a distinct set of specialized responsibilities.

At this point there is no ludic deconstruction since the graduate’s worldview has been freshly constructed. Perhaps the only deconstruction of reality – and far from a playful one at that – is the reality check that a bachelor’s degree no longer guarantees you a job. And as with the ending of the secondary school career, at the end of the post-secondary school career, the social structures are not simplified, they are once again made more complex, but this time, the transition is perhaps a little less jarring since the liminal stage contained within itself many of the same markers for the social structure that we would again encounter in the “real world”.

Communitas in the Journey

Victor Turner defined communitas as a “modality of social relationship from an ‘area of common living’” (Alexander 1998: 148) Common living refers to a state of being in which there are no differentiations in status. In regards to ritual, Turner said, “communitas in rituals refers to liminality, marginality, inferiority, and equality.” (Deflem 1991: 14) In other words, a sense of community develops amongst those in a liminal state as a result of their lack of status, or absence from structure. In some ways, I feel as if as people we need to have structure as a way of letting us know that we are not alone, or that we have a place in the world. In this way, communitas binds us to others in our same situation, thus providing a support system of sorts while we get through our stages of liminality. We experience sameness with our fellow man, and therefore a connection to some kind of structure. Through this sameness, we see communitas arise out of this “open society” (Alexander 1998: 152) that we become a part of.

Having left the somewhat stratified world of high school, in university, individuals who were marginalized within the student body can once again join the student populace, an equal partner in the community. It is here that “voluntary associations seem to be placed in a secondary position, as partially replacing ‘the void left by the dissolution of older patterns of group interaction’” (Chrissman 1976: 376) The dissolution of old patterns, as a way of challenging the old structure, also creates sense of fracture for all the individuals in the group, thus creating a need for communitas in the absence of the old structure. Turner, in his ethnography of the Ndembu, noticed that there was a correlation between the amount of structural entropy in a society and the need for ritual and communitas to keep it together. He argues that in such circumstances “the value of ritual in promoting social solidarity is all the grater. Ritual does not express all aspects of the society, but only those that all Ndembu have in common.” (Ketzer 1988: 63)

Victor Turner identified three types of communitas: existential, normative, and ideological (Deflem 1991: 15).

In the university situation, during the first weeks of school individuals will engage in existential communitas as they socialize with a variety of different people as they engage in all manner of social activities. While students are engaging in these spontaneous groupings, they are ambiguated, and differences between them made less significant.

As the semester moves on and the students gain more of a sense of structure, the existential becomes normative since the bonds are increasingly strengthened around academics. Students begin to know who they can rely on. This is also a time in which students begin to search out our communities of interest through clubs, organizations, and teams – thus furthering their connection to the structure. This is exemplified by the formation of a representative body for the students through a student association. In this liminal phase gender is of little importance in academics, and there is an equality that is ascribed to the student body as a whole.

The ideological communitas cannot be easily applied to the population as a whole, although there can be models than one aspires to within subgroups of academics or professional organizations.

A full exploration of the aspects of ritual in the journey towards a career would be enough to create a sizeable tome. In this brief exploration I have examined the ritualized components of the journey through Victor Turner’s terminology of the components of liminality through the processual stages of ritual of pre-liminality, liminality and post-liminality as they pertain to the journey towards a career. Through my own journey in writing this paper, I have found that much of human activity can be ritualized due to its repetitive nature amongst different groupings. While there is an obvious absence of religion and the supernatural in most of our activities, I believe that the performative nature of these actions still serve the purpose of upholding the social structure through the communication of social values, in this case through post-secondary education. In an age in which science has prevailed thus far, it is perhaps the ritualized and not the ritual that will carry our values forward, and the recurring cycles of communitas and structure that will effect changes in society that will make the marginal into the mainstream.