France and Its Purgatory

Victor Turner has added two characteristics to the rites of passage liminal stage: ambiguity and communitas. The latter fosters freedom (of creation, for example) and the absence of social hierarchies. The present paper evolves from the idea that in France the assimilation of immigrants in isolated suburbs, named la banlieue, constitutes a rite of passage by which the immigrants' status is transformed from being communitarians to becoming autonomous individuals. However, when Turner's two characteristics are tested on the case, communitas appears to be lacking. In conclusion, I therefore propose that assimilation in the banlieue is a slightly different sort of rite from the rites of passage, which does not only change the society's members status, but transforms alien into "natives". I propose to call these rituals "purgatory rites".