Some further research into the meaning of Liminality

Having spent some time reflecting on the spaces chosen to represent liminal exploration, from the micro level to the macro level, I wanted to probe  further into the real meaning of liminality, the liminal and the roots of the word's usage.

Initial research shows that it was originally used in an anthropological context, to signify a particular period during some form of cultural, or social, or status transformation as it a right of passage.  The first person to use the word in an academic sense appears to be attributed to the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, in an article published around 1909.

(Reference; Les rites de passage (The Rites of Passage), A.van Geneep, 1909).

In Gennep's book, "Les Rites de Passage", he outlined a regular, and what appears to be, a reoccurring process, that can be considered in many if not most traditional "human" rites of passage, such as University Graduation, of coming of age, marriage ceremonies, and so on.  This schema does not only appear to apply to western cultures, it also appears in many others, for example; African maturity rites of passage ceremonies, Ndembu tribal coronation (Crowning of a new King), ceremonies,
(Reference; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Turner).

1. Pre-liminal.  Removal of the 'candidate' from their normal or daily environment / separation
2. liminal period.  A state where not much happens at all, where previous accutriments are often stripped, an in-betweeness, like a kind of power-less / status-less, almost state-less "limbo", literally, "the threashold", before which is where the transition or transformation starts.
3. Post-Liminal; This phase can be described as the transition, rebirth, regeneration, transformation or reassimilation of the "candidate" either into the environment from which they came, but with an altered status, or into a new (to them) environment all together.
4. The one constant theme that also seems to appear is that there must be some sort of universal controller of the process, like a master of ceremonies or conductor of some sort.( Reference XX)

(According to Belmont, Nicole. - Arnold van Gennep: The Creator of French Ethnography Derek Coltman trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).

- (Arnold van Gennep, was an early 20th century, German/French, mostly self educated Anthropology Ethnographer and philosopher. He never held an accademic post as such, but continued his research and quest for learning for most of his life.  His work was later built upon by Anthropologist Victor Turner in the late 20th Century, which is cited above).

Considering the concept of the join between the leaf of a tree and the branch and twig to which it is joined, I studied a Horse Chestnut leaf that I had collected a few days before.  The leaf of a horse chestnut tree is described as a palmate leaf, which consists of 5 sub-leaves arranged from a central stalk.  There is a minute cleft between the points where the tree's fabric of wood stops and the green shoot or stem of the leaf starts. It is at this point, through osmosis, that water and nutrients pass from the roots of the tree to nourish the leaf growth during the spring and summer.  In return, the leaf produces the complex sugars or starch to sustain the wood of the tree through it's own growth.  So a transference takes place at this point. It is "managed" by nature itself, so that can be the reference to a controller or master of ceremonies, as per the definition of liminality from Arnold Van Gennep.  So this junction is a true liminal space!