In a book by Victor Turner titled The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Turner discusses the idea of liminality and communitas in a few of his chapters. Liminality refers to being on the threshold between two states, and communitas is the Spanish word for community, signifying unity and togetherness. Often it is the case when people are in a liminal state, they have a sense of communitas forms, born from their homogeneity of being away from standard social rules. Coney Island, discussed in John F. Kasson's Amusing the Million, was a location at the turn of the nineteenth century which foreshadowed the changes of morals and social interactions which would become more prominent in the 1920s. Coney Island fits into Victor Turner's ideas on liminality and communitas through its necessary escapism from the profane, working world, and through uniting all the visitors, turning socio-economic structures inside out.
Coney Island's amusement parts created a liminal world for the working class Americans of the time, allowing for them to break away from the real world and experience fun and play. A park filled with ride, shows, games, and excitement for all let people fall free from their worries and lose themselves in the entertainment which the island provided them. As the racy and colorful postcards exhibit of the visitors, " in arriving at the resort they crossed a critical threshold, entering a world apart from ordinary life, prevailing social structures and positions" (41). There was no distinction between classes because the people were all dressed similarly, with fashion not daring to give away a hint as to the wearer's background. The park created this atmosphere which removed itself from the city life, and shedding the rules of society within the walls. Dwarfs, distorted bodies, odd talents now became the highlight of the Coney Island world where the people would be mocked for their deformities any where else in the New York City area. The island created a fun, playful world, providing the working class a break on the weekends to allow them to return back to their structured worlds and provide this liminal vacation to make their monotonous work life more bearable.
In this world of liminality, Coney Island creates a sense of communitas among its participants which defies the racial and class tensions seen in the city. By breaking free of reality, the people join together and are bound together in their escape from society. No rules exist; the people create their own social rules in the parks which would be scorned outside anywhere else. In Coney Island the visitors "display a sense of solidarity and mutual pleasure in the release of social restraints" (46). Everyone has broken free of all city ties at the parks and beaches, and are united in their ability to drop their biases and enjoy the company of everyone. Ethnicities intermingle, the upper class interacts with citizens of the lower class, and the outcasts are accepted in this fun-filled society. Amusement and fun unites the people of New York City and abroad in a world which defies socio-economical ties. In this liminal state, Coney Island creates an atmosphere in which the people who support a stronger communitas than the one outside the walls of the park.
Coney Island and other parks and attractions like it brought fun and entertainment into the lives of the middle class workers and stripped the people of their biases and misconceptions of other classes and ethnicities. Men and women could show public displays of affection, the poor were allowed to ride the same rides as the rich, and the shunned citizens of society were suddenly on top of the world. In this liminal threshold on Coney Island, communitas is reached as it is produced no other place outside the walls of Luna Park and Dreamland.
After this first reading in Amusing the Million, one of the questions I have about the entire setting is about why people allowed these breaks in social morals to occur. In today's society, it is a given that amusements parks contain certain attractions, but why is it that these new ideas were accepted by the people? I think reading about some oppositions to the events at Coney Island would be helpful in gaining a more accurate picture of the location.
