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This interdisciplinary collection is a new landmark in the study of the world's pilgrimage traditions. Experts from many disciplines approach the subject from a variety of perspectives that are designed to lead to the understanding of pilgrimage in general. Specific case studies represent most of the major religious traditions of the world. Anthropologists, historians, sociologists, social psychologists, and students of religion will find that these theoretical and case studies suggest new areas for further research.
Alan Morinis presents a many faceted examination of sacred journeys in India, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, West Asia, Africa, North America, and the Caribbean. The introduction provides a framework for the case studies which follow. In-depth accounts of patterns of pilgrimage ranging from Hindu practices to a comparison of Catholic and Baptist pilgrimage in Haiti and Trinidad, to a narration of a Maori sacred journey, provide valuable comparative information. Pilgrimage is viewed in relation to methodological issues, and an analysis is offered showing how pilgrimage and tourism are related. Victor Turner's foreword and Colin Turnbull's postscript lend authoritative weight to this increasingly significant field of study.
List of contents
Foreword by Victor Turner
Preface
Introduction by Alan Morinis
Theoretical IssuesMethodological Issues in the Study of Pilgrimage by James J. Preston
Pilgrimage and Tourism: Convergence and Divergence by Erik Cohen
Case StudiesIndiaThe Great Maharashtrian Pilgrimage: Pandharpur and Alandi by John M. Stanley
Velankanni Calling: Hindu Patterns of Pilgrimage at a Christian Shrine by Paul Younger
North America and the CaribbeanPersistent Peregrination: From Sun Dance to Catholic Pilgrimage among Canadian Prairie Indians by Alan Morinis
Pilgrimage and Heresy: The Transformation of Faith at a Shrine in Wisconsin by Peter W. Wood
Pilgrimage in the Caribbean: A Comparison of Cases from Haiti and Trinidad by Stephen D. Glazier
West Asia and AfricaPilgrim Narratives of Jerusalem and the Holy Land: A Study of Ideological Distortion by Glenn Bowman
Pilgrimage and Its Influence on West African Islam by James Steel Thayer
Specialists in Miraculous Action: Some Shrines in Shiraz by Anne Betteridge
Southeast Asia and PacificSanctification Overland: The Creation of a Thai Buddhist Pilgrimage Center by James B. Pruess
Mission to Waitangi: A Maori Pilgrimage by Karen Sinclair
Postscript by Colin Turnbull
Bibliography
Index
About the author
ALAN MORINIS received his doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford University. He is the author of
Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition (1984), co-editor, with N. Ross Crumrine, of
Pilgrimage in Latin America (Greenwood Press, 1991), and co-editor, with Robert Stoddard, of a forthcoming book on the geography of pilgrimage.
