Powers of Pilgrimage PDF Download

Author: Simon Coleman
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814717284
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
"This book offers a new theoretical framework for exploring contemporary pilgrimage, exploring examples ranging from the Hajj to the Camino, and arguing that pilgrimage activity should be understood not solely as going to, staying at, and leaving a sacred place, but also as occurring in apparently mundane or domestic times, places, and practices"--

Author: Kama Maclean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199713359
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Today the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, is a major Hindu religious pilgrimage and the largest religious gathering in the world. In 2001, according to the government of Uttar Pradesh, 30 million pilgrims were drawn to the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna on the most auspicious day for bathing. In an impressive feat of organization and administration, the first mela of the new millennium was managed to the overwhelming satisfaction of most, with an impressive health and safety record. The loudest complaint had to do with the intrusive presence of the media. Journalists, largely representing foreign media outlets, had swarmed to the mela, intent on broadcasting to a global audience sensational images of naked (or wet-sari-clad) Indians taking part in "ancient" religious rituals. Resistance to foreign interference with the mela has roots that go back 200 years. The British colonial state and the colonized had different ideas about what the Kumbh Mela represented: for the former, it was a potentially dangerous gathering that demanded tight regulation and control, but for the latter it was a sacred sphere in which foreign domination and interference were intolerable. In this book Kama Maclean examines this tension and the manner in which it was negotiated by each side. She asks why and how the colonial state tried to manipulate the mela and, more important, how the mela changed as Indians responded to the colonial power. In recent years many scholars have emphasized the extent to which the Kumbh Mela has been monopolized by the Hindu nationalist movement. Maclean seeks to situate the history of the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad within a much broader context. She explores the role of a pilgrimage fair like the Kumbh Mela in disseminating ideas, particularly political ones like nationalism and ideas about social reform. Kama Maclean tells the mesmerizing and important story of the Kumbh Mela with exciting detail as well as careful scholarly attention, illuminating for the reader the full scope of the event's historical and socio-political context.

Author: Antón M. Pazos
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409447596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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The objective of this book is the analysis of the relationships between the phenomenon of pilgrimage and political power within Europe. It establishes a discussion where contributors can compare very different situations such as the medieval pilgrims' protection by military orders, the pilgrimages in Eastern European countries as an opposition to the communist power, or the use of the Pilgrimage to Saint James as an element of national unification during the Spanish Civil War.

Author: Jill Dubisch
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816531676
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This book creatively brings together the two literatures on pilgrimage and on ritual healing in a way neither set of books does on its own. It also adds a contemporary flair, with articles on Burning Man and on the Run to the Vietnam Memorial....A solid piece of scholarship with an exquisite introduction and collection of well-documented and engagingly written articles

Author: Simon Coleman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674667662
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
From the Great Panathenaea of ancient Greece to the hajj of today, people of all religions and cultures have made sacred journeys to confirm their faith and their part in a larger identity. This book is a fascinating guide through the vast and varied cultural territory such pilgrimages have covered across the ages. The first book to look at the phenomenon and experience of pilgrimage through the multiple lenses of history, religion, sociology, anthropology, and art history, this sumptuously illustrated volume explores the full richness and range of sacred travel as it maps the cultural imagination. The authors consider pilgrimage as a physical journey through time and space, but also as a metaphorical passage resonant with meaning on many levels. It may entail a ritual transformation of the pilgrim's inner state or outer status; it may be a quest for a transcendent goal; it may involve the healing of a physical or spiritual ailment. Through folktales, narratives of the crusades, and the firsthand accounts of those who have made these journeys; through descriptions and pictures of the rituals, holy objects, and sacred architecture they have encountered, as well as the relics and talismans they have carried home, Pilgrimage evokes the physical and spiritual landscape these seekers have traveled. In its structure, the book broadly moves from those religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--that cohere around a single canonical text to those with a multiplicity of sacred scriptures, like Hinduism and Buddhism. Juxtaposing the different practices and experiences of pilgrimage in these contexts, this book reveals the common structures and singular features of sacred travel from ancient times to our own.

Author: Martin Gray
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781402747373
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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... "Twenty years of photographs by photographer and anthropologist Martin Gray. Accompanying each photograph is commentary that takes us into the history, mythology and spiritual magnetism of the particular place ..."--Jacket.

Author: Sanne Derks
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643900147
Category : Anthropology of religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Power and Pilgrimage is an in-depth anthropological study of life at a Bolivian pilgrimage site. It focuses on the experiences of pilgrims and how, in their Marian devotion, they express and learn to live with the various inequalities they experience in everyday life. Issues of poverty and class inequality lead them to approach the Virgin of Urkupina to support them in their quest for economic betterment. Another social inequality that comes to the fore is based on gender: in particular Bolivian women seek Mary's support to deal with violence and oppression in their homes. Finally, ethnic inequalities are discussed by analysing the dance processions in honour of the Virgin, since these reflect contested ethnic identities.

Author: John Eade
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725233169
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Whether a pilgrimage centers around a place, a visionary individual, or a text, it brings widely diverse individuals and their beliefs, doctrines, and expectations into contact with each other. This important collection assesses the qualities and power of pilgrimage shrines as sites for accommodating various, often competing, meanings and practices, both among pilgrims and between shrine custodians and devotees. Contributors discuss the highly organized shrine at Lourdes and also the shrine at San Giovanni Rotondo in Sangiovannesi, Italy, where conflicting interests among townspeople and pilgrims have crystallized around the life and the remains, respectively, of a holy man. Other contributors consider the competing images of Jerusalem among pilgrims of various Christian faiths-Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Christian Zionist-and explore the unique attributes of shrines in Sri Lanka and Peru. A major advance in understanding the complexity of pilgrimage, Contesting the Sacred provides valuable insight into the process of exchange between human beings and the divine that gives pilgrimage its central rationale. John Eade's new introduction places the book's theoretical frame in the context of recent thinking and writing on pilgrimage and considers the impact of globalization and tourism on pilgrimage cults and sites.

Author: Timothy Egan
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735225249
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
From "the world's greatest tour guide," a deeply-researched, captivating journey through the rich history of Christianity and the winding paths of the French and Italian countryside that will feed mind, body, and soul (New York Times). "What a wondrous work! This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan's case, both." --Cokie Roberts "Egan draws us in, making us feel frozen in the snow-covered Alps, joyful in valleys of trees with low-hanging fruit, skeptical of the relics of embalmed saints and hopeful for the healing of his encrusted toes, so worn and weathered from their walk."--The Washington Post Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium. A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.

Author: Peter Stanford
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500776423
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
A thought-provoking reflection on the practice and history of pilgrimage, and a compelling exploration of its relevance today. Pilgrimage, a global ritual embraced by nearly all faiths, is one of civilization’s most enduring traditions. In this compelling book, author and journalist Peter Stanford reflects on the reasons people have walked along the same sacred paths through the ages. Through this history, Stanford explores how the experiences of the first pilgrims to Jerusalem, Mecca, and Santiago de Compostela compare to the millions of people who embark on life-changing physical and spiritual journeys today. Pilgrimage traverses sacred landscapes around the world, from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to the monolithic rock-cut churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia and the riverbanks of the Kumbh Mela in India. Stanford explores the historical and spiritual significance of these places of healing and reflection and discusses their roles as crossroads., Although pilgrimage is usually viewed as an individual’s escape from the everyday to refocus the mind and soul, institutional and national struggles for power have always had an impact on the way pilgrims experience their own personal journey. Guiding readers through the global history of pilgrimage, this thought- provoking book educates a new generation that may seek solace, clarity, and wonder by following in the footsteps of travelers from the past.