Liminality In The Devil's Playground

In the movie The Devil’s Playground, teenagers from the Amish church goes through a rite of passage called “Rumspringa” at the age of 16. They obtain the freedom to do whatever they desire and experience the ‘real’ world outside of their church. Then they are to make a decision to either return or leave the Amish Church forever. The traditions and lifestyle of the Amish Church show example of Turner’s ideas of cultural and societal rite of passage, including liminality, communitas, and rituals of status reversal. Liminality is leaving the normal social life and entering a phase where their everyday notion is suspended. Furthermore, liminality is a state of inbetweenness of social status. Communitas, on the contrary, means that people are in a

Rumspringa is a perfect example that encapsulates the idea of liminality. When the teenagers that grew up in a Amish family turn 16, they are no longer part of the church as they were before. They are in a state of “inbetweenness” where they no longer have the responsibility to continue living the Amish lifestyle. However, this is only a transition period that lasts until the age of 21. They will still have to make a decision to either return to the church and leave it for the rest of their life. During this time, they can put away their old Amish identity and live however they desire. Similarly, this transition period represents the ‘inbetweenness’ because of the lost of their Amish status but yet have freedom. Liminality for Amish children ends when they make their ultimate decision to either return or leave the church. The stage of being free, but also tied to the church ends as one will transition fully into a life being or not being a part of the Amish Church. Once the teenagers identify themselves as part of either the American society or the Amish church, they are no longer in