Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Hello again, Dr Barnett:

I was intrigued by your comment, "bad actors live to exploit unguarded seams". It reminds me of the importance of seams, borders and divides in the anthropological literature, under the keyword "liminality".

Situations, places, events, things or people who are "neither fish nor fowl" - - not one thing, and not another -- which therefore "fall between the cracks" are termed "liminal", and a great deal of emotional energy attaches to them.

You may recall from Y2K that:

:: As the year 1999 clicked over to 2000, at local
:: midnight – while everyone else was worrying or
:: not worrying about the Y2K computer glitch --
:: the commander of the US navy sub Topeka
:: surfaced at the equator at the international date
:: line, to give his crew members the chance to
:: walk back and forth between days, months,
:: years, decades, centuries, millennia [the "first
:: number of a four figure year" kind], hemispheres,
:: and seasons...

That was a strongly liminal business. Likewise in Hindu theology, the story of the half-lion, half-man avatar known as Narsingh tells how:

:: A tyrannous and oppressive king obtained a
:: boon that he should die "neither by day nor
:: night, neither within the palace nor outside it,
:: neither at the hand of man nor beast" – and
:: thought his boon conveyed immortality -- but
:: then a half-man half-lion figure met him on
:: his own doorstep at dusk and slew him, so
:: that he died neither by day nor by night,
:: neither within the palace nor outside it, and
:: neither at the hand of beast nor of man.

Again we see liminality as an intensifier of narrative -- and thus by implication, of life.

All shadowy borderlands between "this" and "that" have a "heightened" quality to them, offering those who experience them an extraordinary sense both of possibility and companionship, which Victor Turner, the great anthropologist authority on such things, called "communitas".

Consider the intense transformation -- and bonding -- which takes place during these two classic "liminal" rituals which Turner describes:

:: Before, you're a civilian, after, you're a Marine --
:: but during, there's an extraordinary moment
:: when you've lost your civilian privileges, not yet
:: earned your Marine status, and are less than
:: nothing -- as the drill sgt constantly reminds you
:: -- and yet feel an intense solidarity with your fellows.

:: Before, you're a postulant, not yet married to
:: Christ, after, you're a nun, his wife -- but during,
:: you lie prostrate on the paving stones of the
:: abbey nave in wedding dress and veil as you
:: transition into lifelong poverty, chastity and
:: obedience.

It's fascinating stuff in its own right, but I also think makes for interesting analytic background to your comment about bad actors living in and exploiting the seams..

Regards,

Charles