"Communitas is anti-structural; it has no hierarchy for everyone is seen as an equal, whereas in a community, a hierarchy exists with people carrying ranks and titles," he answered.
According to Victor Turner, communitas is "a relational quality of full unmediated communication, even communion, between definite and determinate identities, which arises spontaneously in all kinds of groups, situations, and circumstances." He continues, "The bonds of communitas are undifferentiated, egalitarian, direct, extant, existential, I-Thou."
Communitas is about connecting with others on many levels-physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. It is the bond shared among individuals or members of a specific group. Dr. Redick's hiking crew is an example. He played a video of them hiking the Appalachian Trail. One scene depicted them eating together and this reveal communion as they share food and converse among themselves. They all offer physical and emotional support to each other. In class, Dr. Redick told us about a man named Wayne, who shared his food with the hikers. This sharing demonstrates communitas for he was liberal with his food, feeding them to satisfy their hunger. He perceived them as people seeking sustenance. He didn't think too highly of himself to withhold something he owned. Edith Turner states, "Communitas occurs through the readiness of the people—perhaps from necessity—to rid themselves of their concern for status and dependence on structures, and see their fellows as they are. (1-2)
Community, on the other hand, is a broad term to classify any gathering of people who share a common goal or purpose. A hierarchy exist that places a certain few over others, giving them power and dominion. A community does not necessarily contain like-minded members because they can all strive toward the same goal, but reach it in different ways-and for good and bad purposes. The workplace, for instance, constitutes a community because all employees share one goal: earn pay in meeting the customer's. needs. How each employee accomplishes this goal may differ among themselves since some employees might communicate to certain customers differently than others. They want to receive pay and promotion, but they do so in their own distinct way. With a manager dictating the business operation, employees must follow rules and regulations. In communitas, rules, ranks, and regulations don't exist.
My classes constitute a community because we all share the same goal: to expand our knowledge in our major to aspire to become a specialist in that specific field. We listen to one individual (the professor) explain the content he/she wants the class to understand. That professor holds authority over the students, telling them what they can and cannot do in the classroom and on class assignments. Also, we are a community because we are all college students. As a Communications Studies major, I belong in the Communications Department (in a sense) for I study the same topic as my peers.
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