Research Paper on Victor Turner's Contribution to Anthropology: Liminality & Communitas

The concept of Liminality reintroduced by Victor Turner into anthropology was a significant contribution to the discourse. Liminality aims at understanding cultures based on disorder and dynamism, and society is seen as a dynamic and dialectic process and not as a thing. According to Turner, the concept of culture is whereby there is a struggle between anti-structure and structure (359). On the other hand, is the idea of Communitas which is also brought by Turner. Communitas is a state brought about by Liminality, and which according to him, is a society which relatively has no structure, and whose basis is on solidarity and equality relations, and is opposed to the normative social structure. In line with the recent happenings or performance in Iran, there is a lot that can be derived and explained using the concepts of Communitas and Liminality. The structure of the Iranian government is a big issue to raise in discussing the matter. Fundamentally, Iran has a non-structures system, and this is a significant cause of the recent chaos that has resulted in the loss of lives and jobs among the citizens. The concept of Liminality better describes the Iranians, who, as per the happenings, have been subjected to total punishment by their government, and they have no voice to defend themselves.

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Threshold people or Liminality have ambiguous attributes, and their entities are neither here nor there (Turner 359). In the societies that ritualize cultural and social transitions, the indeterminate and ambiguous characteristics of the Liminality are expressed by a wide variety of symbols. As a result, Liminality is usually linked to the negativities in society like death and darkness. The liminal entities are often represented to be possessing nothing, and they are usually disguised as monsters, an indicator that as liminal beings, they have no property, status, position, rank, or role in a kinship system. They usually have a passive or humble behavior, and must implicitly obey their instructors, and accept without complaint, arbitrary punishment.

The situation in Iran is not something far from the Liminality concept since the citizens have been reduced to subjects by their government. They undergo oppression and do not have the voice to defend themselves. Any attempt to raise a complaint amounts to severe punishment by the government, as seen in the performance case. Everything went a mess when the Iranian government decided to increase the prices of fuel by over 50%, which led to the people taking to the streets to protest. Little did the people know that they had no right to protest against any action by their government (Fathollah-Nejad 1). The protests were motivated by various events in the country and not only the increased gas prices. Among the other things that led to the demonstrations were the economic pressure resulting from nuclear energy economic agreements.

The protests entailed people from various backgrounds, gender, and economic status. The poor, the rich, students, the old, men, women from all the corners of the countries. There were also demonstrations and meetings held by Iranians in the diaspora and other non-Iranians who felt that what the government of Iran was doing was not right. The demonstrators played various indistinct roles, from carrying of placards indicating their pleas to the government to the burning of banks in the towns. According to the information obtained from the interviews and observations, a lot of banks had been burned by the protestors who also turned the car engines on the roads to curtail any means of transport. There were a lot of inconveniences caused by these demonstrators, and government and other private sector operations were unable to occur smoothly. Businesses got closed up since everyone feared for their lives and their shops. Family members tried to reach out to their loved ones, but no avail. All the internet connectivity in the country had been shut down by the government to avoid any communication by its citizens and passing of information from one point to another. The Persian communities all over the world also engaged in the protests by gathering in places to speak for their rights. The Persians outside of Israel experienced a moment of darkness as they were unable to communicate to their loved ones due to the cut communication by the government and hence did not know the whereabouts of their family members.

The protests were held for three significant reasons. On the primary end was the increased prices of gas by more than 50%, a situation which led to tough times to the Iranians. The other reason that led to the protests was the challenging economic times faced by the people due to economic agreement by the Iran government over nuclear energy. The nuclear energy sanction led to tough economic moments for the people who could no longer withstand the situation. It had to take to the streets to openly protest over their dissatisfaction. There was a ban on all the money transactions, imports, and exports from Iran to the United States and other European countries, a move that had a significant impact on the country's daily bases. That is not what the people wanted from their government. As a result, they had to protest since the government was stealing money from their country to help other Islamic countries while its people remained in the advent of poverty.

The Iranian authorities have strengthened their retaliation on 26th November over the protests that overwhelmed the country last week. The authorities arrested six significant elements that it accused of rioting in Tehran and penalized the overseas Iranian journalists who published the chaos. Although there has been a partial restoration of the internet services that were shut down in the country after the eruption of the protests, government officials have warned that there might be indefinite curtailing of the services. The suspension of internet services by the government is an extreme level of intimidation by the Iranian government as it denies the cities their rights to communication and information. The citizens have been suppressed, and no one is allowed to share any information using the internet or through phone calls. All the calls made from or to people in Iran are tracked, and the citizens are now afraid of asking for the whereabouts of their loved ones. The government had no mercy on the citizens, and the people have been made to suffer enormously. For instance, many organizations that rely on the internet to conduct their businesses have been forced to suspend their activities, implying that the workers have to be laid off. Besides, there are also individuals whose works entirely rely on the use of the internet, such as freelancers, and they have been rendered in a state of financial limbo with no hope on how to provide for their families. Accessing the internet through mobile phones has also been blocked ever since.

There were intensified response to the protests reported in the Iranian official media which resulted from the claims by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the government of the United States had received over 20,000 videos, messages, notes, and photographs from Iranians after he made a call last week asking for evidence that there were violent suppression from the protests after the internet blackout (Fathollah-Nejad 4). Mr. Pompeo did not specify or reveal the content of the materials he received, and his appeal to the people of Iran has enraged the Tehran leadership. The Secretary of the State only stated, "I hope they will continue to be sent to us."

A mix of enemies have, however, been accused by the Iranian government to behind the riots, and among them include the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, seditionists, and monarchists. They have been accused of exploiting the anger of the people over the increase of gasoline price, of igniting strikes in several towns and cities that got crushed by forces in a few days. Apart from the internet shutdown that segregated much of the country, several photos and videos have been posted that showed a tale picture of widespread clashes in the streets, shootings of unarmed demonstrators suggestively by members of the security forces, and burning of buildings. The figures for arrest and casualties are yet to be reported by the government. Still, strong indications exist that suggest that this protest was one of the deadliest in the history of the country since the election unrest that occurs a decade ago.

The Liminality pedagogics represents a condemnation of two separation types from Communitas generic bond (Turner 365). The first kind of separation is only acting is based on the rights conferred to you by the authority of rule in the social structure. The second one is where it follows their psychological urges instead of their fellows. In most kinds of Liminality, there is a mystical character that is assigned human kindness sentiment, and this transition stage in most cultures is brought jointly in touch with beliefs in the punitive and protective powers of the authorities (Turner 365). In the Iranian case, the United States, through the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has acted in the place of the protective power, showing human kindness by asking the Iranians to continue sending more photos and videos of the happenings in their state. This gives them the hope that the U.S would take action since their government has turned wild on them through the use of forces to humiliate those fighting for their rights. Amnesty International is also at the forefront of fighting or human rights, and Iran is not left behind in such fights. The organization has produced reports indicating that over 140 people were killed in the demonstrations, and the killings were majorly from firearms by the government security agencies (Fassihi & Gladstone 2). However, officials have criticized the figure claiming they are speculative and that the number of those who have been killed in the demonstrations are at least 218.

The reports produced by Coroner indicated that those killed during the riots were at least 218, with at least 7,000 arrested, and 1,900 people injured (Fassihi & Gladstone 2). Last week, the Iranian government said that about one hundred masterminds and ringleaders had been arrested nationwide, and claimed that there was more upcoming arrest of those connected to the riot. Officials also punished Iranian journalists for allegedly reporting remotely on the protests. The Judiciary further announced judicial and legal restrictions on the assets owned at Iran International by Iranian reporters. Iran International is a broadcaster based in Britain that is owned by Iran. The Judiciary announced that the broadcaster was at work to fan flames of organized terror acts and riots, secession and subversion, and disrupt Iran's security. Iranian journalists within the country have been warned by the government to strictly limit the news they provide about the state of unrest in Iran. On 22nd November, an independent economics reporter Mohammad Mosaed was reported to have been arrested by Iranian Intelligence at his home in Tehran after he managed to sidestep the internet shutdown and posted on social media, "Hello Free World!" (Fassihi & Gladstone 3).

Indeed, the Iranian people have been reduced to Liminality by their government, and they do not have any freedom to enjoy. The government is eating its people through a hiked economy of inflated prices, which cannot be debated against. The Iranians live like slaves in their own country, where they are denied the right to express themselves. They are denied the right to access to information, and the people suffer the wrath of those who are supposed to be protecting them. They have nowhere to run to since all the borders a...