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lifestyle
The concept of lifestyle is connected with the form
of behaviour specific to a social position, while
the concept of ethos seems to be first of all
connected with the hierarchy of values. The term
`lifestyle' was used by, among others, Weber, Veblen
and Adler.
The types of ethos depend on the hierarchy of
values of a given person. According to the most
important values, one may distinguish such key
ethos as the search for truth, wisdom, conformity,
alterocentrism, love, egocentrism, creativity, consumption,
freedom, independence, consent to
constraint and others. The types of lifestyles
depend on the affiliation to the social class or
other social group to which an individual belongs.
Thus, the lifestyle typology can be based on such
sociocultural variables as age, social class or
profession. These influence lifestyles of the youth,
old people, workers, peasants, intelligentsia, aristocracy,
soldiers and many others.
It is difficult to say to what extent the specificity
of the touristic lifestyle exists, but taking into
account the still growing number of tourists
worldwide, it is reasonable to argue that tourism is
a form of social category. This represents a lifestyle
which characterises tourism and tourists on a
voluntary and temporary move away from home,
with activities at their destinations and eventual
return to their home communities. The essence of
this lifestyle is captured in the realisation of such
touristic goals as cognition, acquaintance with the
host nature and culture, involvement in leisure
pursuits, searching for rest and relaxation opportunities,
conducting studies and making family or
business contacts. More multidisciplinary research
on tourism will have much to say about the tourism
lifestyle, its roots, the diversity in its manifestation
and its meanings at and away from home.
liminality
KRYSZTOF PRZECLAWSKI, POLAND
Liminality �from the Latin limen, a threshold) is the
middle stage of transition in a rite of passage. The
liminality 359
concept has been introduced into anthropology by
Victor Turner �1969) following the earlier work by
Arnold van Gennep. Individuals in a liminal stage
are `betwixt and between', because they pass
through an ambiguous cultural realm, devoid of
the structural characteristics of the preceding and
following stages. The liminal stage is experienced by
participants in the rite of passage as one of `nonplace'
and `no-time', resisting categorisation.
Participants in the rite are stripped of power
and levelled to a stage of social homogeneity,
during which they are inculcated with sacred
knowledge. They form a transient `antistructural',
undifferentiated and egalitarian formation, which
Turner called `communitas'. Turner has coined the
term `liminoid' to designate states resembling
liminality in other social phenomena, including
the pilgrimage and tourism. Although Turner
himself did not specifically study tourism, some
researchers have sought to apply his conceptual
framework to the analysis of touristic situations,
particularly vacations or `holidays'. Such situations
are described as `antistructural' reversals of
everyday routine existence, during which the
normal social differences among the tourists are
temporarily suspended. Time is experienced as
`flow' without horological divisions, norms of attire
and sexual conduct are abandoned, and a
spontaneous camaraderie, resembling communitas,
develops among the participants. The dress and
conduct of the tourists marks them sharply off from
the locals, particularly in tourism enclaves in
developing countries �Wagner 1977).
Liminoid touristic situations are markedly ludic.
In sharp contrast to the seriousness of
liminality in rites of passage, tourists may engage
in reversed role-playing such as being `kings for a
day' or `primitives' �Gottlieb 1982), whether
spontaneously on some remote beach, or more
self-consciously within the framework of a Club
MeÂditeraneÂe. In sightseeing, a liminal flow of
time is more difficult to achieve owing to
constricting factors, such as timetables and itineraries.
However, groups engaging in sightseeing
may occasionally approximate the closeness of a
communitas, despite the formal, institutionalised
framework of their journey.