I enjoyed reading about the interaction between pilgrims that Tuner discusses in the introduction to his book: Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. He talks about how pilgrims joined together for safety but once in groups their social status or "ascribed" status is no longer used to identify them. Among fellows pilgrims, one is not viewed by the constructs normal society uses. "The likeness of lot and intention is converted into commonness of feeling, into communitas.", writes Turner as he describes the type of relationships people form while on pilgrimage. Often pilgrims experience spontaneous friendship or association with others going through the same trial they are undergoing. He describes the whole group of pilgrims as a, "throng of similars, not of structurally interdependent persons". He also notes that the power ascribed to ritual allows for communitas to happen on the scale that it does. I found my self experiencing communitas when I first hiked part of the A.T. freshman year. I was hiking with a friend, but didn't know the others in my class. At, first it seemed that we all would keep to our selves and the trip would be pretty quiet. This all changed, suddenly, a few nights into the trip. Several of us went of at night to share a few beers some one had brought. You would have thought someone flipped a switch with the difference in how people were opening up to each other as compared to the nights before. This process repeated its self over and over again along the trail until I truly did feel like part of the community of hikers and travelers.
- November 26, 2013
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