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Paper short abstract:

The study of contemporary pilgrimage has drawn very productively on the interpretive and representational paradigms Yet, an alternative approach has developed inspired by relational paradigms and I will discuss here how pilgrimage studies is benefiting from this relational turn.

Paper long abstract:

Since the early 1990s ethnographic studies of contemporary pilgrimage around the world have steadily increased and have drawn very productively on such key concepts as communitas, contestation, mobility and secularisation. Although attention has been paid to religious pilgrimage, the diversity and changing character of pilgrimage has been acknowledged through such categories as spiritual and secular pilgrimage, military pilgrimage and pilgrimage tourism. In terms of theory these studies have been informed by the interpretive and representational paradigms which have long dominated anthropology and related social sciences. Recently, alternative approaches have been explored drawing on relational, ‘more than representational’ paradigms within the social sciences. These approaches have encouraged us to focus on the interaction between humans and other actors, where agency is not just confined to humans. I will consider the contribution of this turn to the dynamic field of pilgrimage studies, drawing on participant observation as a helper at the French Marian shrine of Lourdes and a walker on two one day events organised by the British Pilgrimage Trust. I will focus particularly on the agency of water and sensual experience.

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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic material from five research sites in the Adriatic sea, I focus on relational interaction between the religious practices of the local communities, mostly fisherman, and their living environment - seascapes.

Paper long abstract:

Humans are no longer viewed as exceptional subjects acting upon inert matter, rather human perception and intention emerge from embodied encounters with living and non-living materials that can act back (Lash 2018: 289). The main idea of this paper is to show the relational interaction between maritime pilgrimages and their physical environment. I argue that local, mostly fisherman’s communities, framed by natural features of their environment in which they lived, and directed towards maritime way of life, within relational process that lasted for centuries, adapted their religious beliefs and practices and created their geography of pilgrimage - seascapes. By practices of maritime pilgrimage they constantly re-create their relations with their seascapes, physically and symbolically appropriating the space of their everyday life, but also being directly influenced by the same space. Locations of the churches and sites of pilgrimage in focus were, at least partially, determined by the natural features of their environment, i. e. safe harbour, site protected from winds, located within fisherman communities living space, etc. By maritime pilgrimage practices they articulated their everyday life, actively taking the living space and creating seascape. The seascape represents both the physical and cognitive, however, it does not require geographical or temporal boundaries separate and distinct from non-maritime-related spaces, nor boundary between land and sea (McKinnon, Mushynsky and Cabrera 2014: 61). Seascape is more than just simple ecological relationship between people and their natural environment, it includes a number of symbolic practices (McNiven 2003), one of them being maritime pilgrimages.

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Paper short abstract:

Pilgrimage conceptualisations are currently transforming geographical, cultural and religious landscapes in Norway. The paper explores how ongoing negotiations of the phenomenon include differing views on pilgrimage as long-distance hikes inland and as travels by boat along the coast.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1990s, pilgrimage has become an increasingly visible phenomenon in Norway. This development entails heritagisation of shrines sought by pilgrims before the Protestant Reformation. Today “routes with roots” inspired by visual and administrative elements from the Camino, including pilgrim credentials and branded way-markers, are developed on levels from grassroot initiatives to governmental strategy projects. A range of agents participate in the ongoing interpretations of what contemporary pilgrimage entails. While pilgrimage realisations in Norway mainly have been centered on routes accommodated for journeys on foot, a shift towards increased focus on maritime pilgrimage is now observable. The Sunniva Route to Selja and The St Olav Ways to Nidaros are two such routes, leading to the former shrines of St Sunniva and St Olav respectively. These routes have recently been connected by way of the Coastal Pilgrimage Route and holds the status as a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.

Based on interviews and participatory observation along these routes, the paper explores the tensioned-filled co-construction of pilgrimage in Norway. Ongoing negotiations of what pilgrimage as a contemporary phenomenon entail is exemplified by differing notions of pilgrimage as long-distance hikes inland and as travels by boat. The aim is to re-orientate the notion of place in relation to pilgrimage by focusing on the development of pilgrimage routes as administrative projects by “pilgrimage bureaucrats” and “long-term pilgrims”. A further aim is to ask to what extent these developments exemplify dynamic and shifting interfaces between the spheres of religion, politics and cultural heritage.

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Paper short abstract:

The presentation will focus on methodological challenges of pilgrimage research during the COVID-19 pandemic through the example of a small, local pilgrimage in Croatia. The emphasis will be on the attitudes and reactions of the local community towards institutionally conditioned restrictions.

Paper long abstract:

Ethnographic research which focuses on the pilgrimage to the Madonna of Snow in Kukljica, on the island of Ugljan in Croatia, began in the summer of 2020, at a time of strong restrictions and fear of Corona virus infection. Kukljica is a small island community which continuously celebrates the feast of the Madonna of Snow since the early 16th century (according to local tradition), displaying her statue in a procession that takes place mostly by boat making it a 'maritime pilgrimage'.

The focus of the presentation will be on the dynamics of established restrictions of the local authorities and the behavior of the locals/pilgrims in their attempts of preserving the practice in its usual form, showing persistence and strong importance of this religious practice for the local community.

The ethnographic data collected so far will be placed in a wider Croatian, predominantly Catholic context, in terms of comparison with main pilgrimage sites in the country, questioning institutionally conditioned restrictions and their impact on the performance of religious practices and the controversy between secular and religious gathering regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Paper short abstract:

In this paper I investigate the relation between religious pilgrimages and the societal contexts where they are performed. In order to do so, I look at the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio in Sardinia and explore how it transformed throughout the years and how these changes reflect, and are reflected by, socio cultural transformations in the wider community.

Paper long abstract:

The Festival of Sant'Efisio in Sardinia (Italy) is a series of sacred and secular events which orbit around the pilgrimage in honour of Saint Efisio, during which the statue of the Saint is carried and followed by devotees for a round trip from his church in the old town of Cagliari to the place of his martyrdom for a total of 80km, making it one of the longest pilgrimages in Europe. This pilgrimage originated after an official vow to the Saint made by the Municipality of the City Cagliari in 1652 in order to eradicate the plague which was decimating the population, and it has been performed every year, with only few exceptions, since then. Throughout the years the pilgrimage and its collateral rituals have undergone several changes which often reflected broader social, cultural and political transformations in Sardinia and beyond, revealing a deep interconnection between the sacred and secular realms. In this paper I draw upon performance and ritual theory (Turner 1967, 1969; Schechner 2003; Carlson 2004; Dolan 2005) to explore the transformative potential of the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio, both at individual and societal level (Helms 1988). Inspired by Coleman (2002: 363), I employ the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio as a case-study to explore wider issues such as the tension between tradition and social change, the overlap between sacred and secular systems and gendered experiences in the broader community beyond the pilgrimage time frame. I discuss the aforementioned issues through narratives, stories and experiences from my research fieldwork undertaken between 2018 and 2022. I believe this paper will offer new perspectives within the field of pilgrimage studies by also shedding some light on a religious and cultural phenomenon that, despite its growing popularity both among Sardinians and visitors, still remains underresearched.