Eli5 what is a liminal space?
In: 37
it’s a boundary between two (usually more clearly defined) spaces, states or times. you’re not quite in the one place, but also not in the other.
examples seem the best way to explain it.
–“tweeners” are not exactly children, but they aren’t quite teens, yet.
–when you’re lying in bed having come out of a dream and you’re partially conscious, you’re not asleep, but you’re not really awake, either, in the sense of fully alert.
–the period between the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the Constitution in the united states was a liminal period where we weren’t really a country yet, but we weren’t dependent colonies, either.
–the routines or rituals one does to prepare for going to a house of worship can be liminal in regards to the sacred and the profane.
the key point is, liminal spaces are defined by the spaces around them. without the two different countries, canada and the u.s., there is no liminal space on the AlCan highway where you’ve left the u.s. but haven’t gone thorough canada’s immigration yet.
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