Geological Travel and Theoretical Innovation: The Role of `Liminal' Experience

Abstract

Geology is a science in which fieldwork is a central element of practice, not least because so many important geological features are not mobile. At least in the past, geological expeditions involved a double movement from the familiar to the unfamiliar and back again — not only in terms of features seen and studied, but also in terms of separation from and reintegration into the `home' scientific community. The dynamics of this process are here compared with van Gennep's classic concept of `liminality', and with Victor Turner's application of that concept to the process of pilgrimage. Theoretical innovation in a field science such as geology may require, or at least be facilitated by, a pilgrimage-like process in which scientists are exposed to unfamiliar perceptual and personal inputs while temporarily insulated from their familiar scientific environment.