Émile Durkheim between Gabriel Tarde and Arnold van Gennep: founding moments of sociology and anthropology

Thomassen, Bjørn

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.2012.00204.x

Cited by 35 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Be this as it may, I shall not step any further onto the complex and delicate grounds of Van Gennep’s tense relation with Durkheim and the Durkheimian équipe, which in any case, needs to be placed in the broader context of his uneasy trajectory relatively to the field of ethnography and French academia at large (Thomassen, 2012, 2014, 2016; Zumwalt, 1982). Neither do I intend to engage here in a detailed, point-to-point comparison between gifts in Rites of Passage and the Essay on the Gift (although this certainly could be done).…”

Section: Between Van Gennep and Maussmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts in Rites of Passage or gifts as rites of passage? Standing at the threshold between Van Gennep and Marcel Mauss

Silber¹

2018

Journal of Classical Sociology

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This article revisits Arnold Van Gennep’s Rites de passage from the point of view of gift theory. Gifts emerge as quasi-omnipresent and in association with all sorts as well as all phases of rites of passage in Van Gennep’s text. However, he never explicitly addresses nor problematizes this pervasive connection between gifts and rites of passage. In contrast with Marcel Mauss’s later Essai sur le don, moreover, Rites de passage tends to relate to gift-exchange in either mere instrumental, economic terms, or as a rather simple and efficient, binding and “unifying” mechanism, while displaying none of Mauss’s complementary attentiveness to the agonistic as well as more complex and contradictory features of gift processes. Yet, precisely the ideas of margin and liminality for which Van Gennep’s became best known, but which did not seep at all into his own treatment of gifts, may be drawn upon to approach gift interactions as ritual processes, perhaps even rites of passage, with liminal phases and anti-structural features of their own kind. Such an angle of analysis happens to converge with current approaches to the gift that have underscored the part it may play in fraught dynamics of mutual definition and recognition in human interactions. It might also suggest new ways of interpreting the deep, recurrent association between gifts and rites of passage, which Rites de passage unwittingly contributed to highlight, but still needs to be further explored and conceptualized.

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Section: Between Van Gennep and Maussmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts in Rites of Passage or gifts as rites of passage? Standing at the threshold between Van Gennep and Marcel Mauss

Silber¹

2018

Journal of Classical Sociology

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“…Such a denigratory consideration of folklore was still very much present in French academia when Claude Lévi-Strauss’s influence replaced the Durkheimian school. Lévi-Strauss’s (1962: 195–196) fierce attack on the study of rituals in fact only aggravated the denigration of Van Gennep’s legacy (Belmont, 1974: 25, 45, 67–68, 117; Senn, 1974: 229–243; Thomassen, 2012: 232). Indeed in the “Finale” of the Naked Man , Lévi-Strauss (1981 [1971]) criticized with unprecedented hostility the whole field of ritual studies (p. 674).…”

Section: A Detour With Pierre Bourdieumentioning

confidence: 99%

On social rhythm: A renewed assessment of Van Gennep’s Rites of Passage

Hochner

2018

Journal of Classical Sociology

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Contrary to most readers who have emphasized the notions of passage or liminality, I demonstrate in this study that Van Gennep’s Rites de passage is articulated around the four notions of sequences, margins, passages, and schema. Subsequently, the main claim of this article is to propose the idea of social kinesis—or social rhythm—as the crux of Van Gennep’s theory. Such a fresh reappraisal of Van Gennep is also an opportunity to show how Pierre Bourdieu sought for social laws and regularities in a rather deterministic fashion, and completely overlooked Van Gennep’s idea of motion. More importantly, this article is an invitation to reconsider Van Gennep’s epistemological approach as a bridge between the social and the life sciences. Indeed, Van Gennep’s so-called méthode des séquences emerges from a dialogue between the social sciences and biology on the one hand, and with cosmology on the other. Indeed, I illuminate how Van Gennep investigated the enigmas of social life and dynamics within the framework of his understanding of metabolism and regenerative processes.

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“…As I have argued elsewhere in a different context, the alternative framework suggested by Durkheim's opponent, Gabriel Tarde, is more appropriate (Tarde, 1903;Szakolczai and Thomassen, 2001;Thomassen, 2012a; see also Latour and Le´pinay, 2009). In fact, Tarde's approach helps us to identify a serious shortcoming in Durkheim's entire work; namely, the still pervasive tendency to establish ''norms'' from statistical averages -''external'' to the individual.…”

Section: At the Interstices Of Legality: The Legal Construction Of Bementioning

confidence: 99%

Begging Rome: Norms at the margins, norms of the in-between

Thomassen

2015

Critique of Anthropology

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In this article, I argue that begging and beggary represents and must be analyzed through a twofold prism: as an economic exchange taking place at the margins but amply within the structures of the market economy and as a social relationship and cultural exchange that, due exactly to its in-between liminal nature, touches upon and generate central values; an exchange in which crucial norms are negotiated and established. Begging activities are just one example of how the market oriented economy intertwines with underground networks and ''informal economies'', and how these interconnections produce implicit and explicit norms. Romeo (act 5, scene 1)You're this poor and wretched and still afraid to die? Your cheeks are thin because of hunger. I can see in your eyes that you're starving. Anyone can see that you're a beggar. The world is not your friend, and neither is the law. The world doesn't make laws to make you rich. So don't be poor. Break the law, and take this money. (he holds out money) Apothecary I agree because I'm poor, not because I want to.

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Émile Durkheim between Gabriel Tarde and Arnold van Gennep: founding moments of sociology and anthropology

Cited by 35 publications

References 19 publications

Gifts in Rites of Passage or gifts as rites of passage? Standing at the threshold between Van Gennep and Marcel Mauss

Gifts in Rites of Passage or gifts as rites of passage? Standing at the threshold between Van Gennep and Marcel Mauss

On social rhythm: A renewed assessment of Van Gennep’s Rites of Passage

Begging Rome: Norms at the margins, norms of the in-between

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