Social Representations Circulating in the Marginal Period of the Rite of Passage: The Case of Forensic Experts in Probationary Period
Keywords:
Rituals. Social Representations. Probationary Period. Forensic Expertise. Ethnography.Abstract
This paper proposes to identify the social representations constructed by forensic experts on probation, therefore standing at the marginal period of the rite of passage. The notion of rite that pervades the article is based on Turner (1974), Van Gennep (1978), DaMatta (1978; 1983), Rivière (1997), Segalen (2000) and Peirano (2003). It is defined as an extraordinary moment when values and knowledge are introduced to initiates in order to incorporate them into the cultural universe they are about to enter. Social representations constructed over this period will present peculiarities inherent to the position held by initiates. According to Sperber (2001), from an anthropological perspective social representations emerge from a composition articulated around the representation itself, its contents, a user and a producer (who might sometimes be the user himself or herself). Mental representations are those constructed inside the user. Public representations are mental representations shared among the members of a given group. Each member of a social group or community has an inner gamma of mental representations; when publicized, part of that knowledge or representations will be shared among the members of the group. Thus, subjects will construct their mental representations based on that first publicized. The ethnographic method made it possible to follow the initiates from the separation stage to the margin moment. Initiates were approached by participant and simple observation from May 2009 to June 2012. The representations that circulated in the liminal stage considered the work as: emotional distress, a positive value, interfering in family life, identified as CSI, positive and negative in the eyes of the police, black humour and lack of resources. It is worth to mention that humility and criticism with positive aspects were practiced, despite the initiates being newcomers to the public service. That confirms theorizing made by anthropologists to whom humility and moderation are the kind of behavior to be expected in the marginal stage of the rite of passage.Downloads
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