This paper situates the
concept of liminality within anthropology, philosophy and sociology, and
underlines the connections across the disciplines by showing how the role of
experience is crucial to a full understanding of the term, however applied. In
order to point to the dynamics of liminal moments, the article introduces three
complementary terms, namely ¿imitation¿, ¿trickster¿ and ¿schismogenesis¿. The
usefulness of the concept of liminality is then demonstrated via a diversity of
examples, including the analysis of intellectual ¿generations¿. Liminality
helps to study events or situations that involve the dissolution of order, but
which are also formative of institutions and structures. It is argued that the
neglect of liminality in philosophy and social theory but also in social and
political life is a serious hinder to a fuller grasp of some of the most
problematic aspects of modernity.