The sociology of the limit: Reformulating the question of migration through Van Gennep

Abstract

This article situates Van Gennep’s Rites de passage in the contemporary field of migration studies, arguing that his second and third chapters allow us to reformulate how we conceptualize contemporary migratory encounters. Rather than reading Van Gennep’s classical text through the prevalent Turnerian lens of “liminality” in migration, I reread it as offering a conceptualization of migration as deriving from society’s establishment on a delimited piece of earth, constituting itself against and in relation to its own limits. Society’s limit then becomes the center of social inquiry, while the strangers at the gate are seen as an integral part of these fundamental relations between a social grouping and the delimited space it occupies. The article further suggests that Van Gennep’s sociology of the limit offers the field of migration studies three practical analytical contributions: (a) its notion of the multiplicity of limits and sublimits emerging throughout the migratory encounter; (b) its emphasis on the sanctification of the limit, which opens up the possibility of analyzing the relations between migration and emotions; and (c) its pointing to the potential cycle of dread elicited by this sanctification—a notion highly relevant to analyzing contemporary migratory encounters.

Repetition and reintegration: Van Gennep’s structure and routinized warfare

“…However, with a second glance, one may detect deviations in this linearity. First, the effort of introduction, setting the theoretical scene, is not exhausted in the opening chapter but continues into chapters II and III (see Gazit, 2018; Silber, 2018). The second deviation comes prior to the conclusion, with a chapter addressing “Other Types ( Autres groups ) of Rites of Passage.” This penultimate chapter contains a seemingly arbitrary collection of examples of passages and rites, a collection that undermines both the linear logic and thematic organization that characterize the preceding chapters.…”

“…However, with a second glance, one may detect deviations in this linearity. First, the effort of introduction, setting the theoretical scene, is not exhausted in the opening chapter but continues into chapters II and III (see Gazit, 2018;Silber, 2018). The second deviation comes prior to the conclusion, with a chapter addressing "Other Types (Autres groups) of Rites of Passage."…”

Reclaiming Arnold Van Gennep’s Les rites de passage (1909): The structure of openness and the openness of structure

“…As for the philosophical intimations, fingerprints of lebensphilosophies , largely of a Nietzschean and Bergsonian sort, emerge within the pages of Rites de passage . This book suggests that both human passages and celestial movements share recurrent rhythms (Hochner, 2018), Dionysian iterative energy (Abeliovich, 2018), multiplicity of limits (Gazit, 2018), propensities toward reincarnation (Daher-Nashif, 2016), and may even imply a “holistic philosophy of becoming” (Thomassen, 2016: 190). We find, for example, that instead of a life and death dichotomy, Van Gennep identifies the pattern of rebirth.…”