Blazing the trail

by Victor Witter Turner

Victor Turner (1920-1983) stands as one of the leading anthropologists of the twentieth century, known especially for his work on the process of ritual. This new collection of Turner's writings gathers seven late pieces that reflect his thoughts on such subjects as pilgrimage, sacrifice, and liminal processes. In them he reveals his debt to Freud, his views on morality, and always his fascination with ritual. Representative of Turner's mature scholarship, these essays will be of interest to scholars in literature, mythology, and religion. With its emphasis on symbolic studies, Blazing the Trail serves as a companion volume to the earlier collection of Turner's essays On the Edge of the Bush (Arizona, 1986), which focused on process and performance. The present collection includes a biographical and critical essay by Edith Turner.