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This collection of essays presents the very latest research on the peace-building dimension of sacred and secular journeys at individual, societal, regional and global levels. Not since the 1980s has there been any concerted effort to explore the potential of such journeys in helping to bridge the divide that separates people of diverse ethnicities, religions and cultures. This volume gathers together empirical studies, regional analyses, and personal reflections from four continents and twelve countries, including Sri Lanka, Syria, Ethiopia, and Indonesia, which highlight the potential of religious tourism and pilgrimage for promoting interfaith solidarity, natural dialogue, and inner peace. It will be of interest to religion, tourism and peace scholars, as well as to political scientists and anthropologists.
Pilgrimage in the Twenty-First Century: A Kaleidoscopic Inquiry showcases the rich diversity of religious and secular pilgrimage on the world stage. Scholars from the Global North and South working in diverse fields in the humanities and social sciences share their research on the nature of pilgrimage—otherwise known as travel for transformation—providing insight into why it is one of the fastest growing segments of the worldwide tourism industry. Topics under scrutiny include the ancient history of pilgrimage, pilgrimage in literature, the development of new trails and the refurbishment of others, pilgrimage as an avenue for justice and peacebuilding, as an example of intangible cultural heritage, and as a unique driver of domestic economies. Each chapter in this survey—covering more than fifteen countries—makes a significant contribution to our understanding of this age-old and multi-faceted phenomenon that is central to our understanding of what it means to be human.
This book is concerned with conceptions of rebirth among the Druze in the Middle East. Based on ethnographic field research and interviews with interlocutors, the book explores constructions of personal and collective identities from the perspectives of social anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, cultural geography, and political science.
In Walking the Way Together, Kathleen Jenkins offers an up-close study of parents and their adult children who walk the Camino de Santiago together. A Catholic visitation site of medieval origins with walking paths across Europe, the Camino culminates at the shrine of Saint James in the city of Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia, an autonomous region of Spain. It has become a popular point of religious tourism for Catholics, spiritual seekers, scholars, adventurers, and cultural tourists. In 2019, well over 300,000 people arrived at the Pilgrims Office seeking a certificate of completion; they had walked anywhere from one hundred to over eight hundred kilometers. Jenkins brings a...
The remarkable growth in religious tourism across the world has generated considerable interest in the impacts of this type of tourism. Focusing here on environmental issues, this book moves beyond the documentation of environmental impacts to examine in greater depth the intersections between religious tourism and the environment. Beginning with an in-depth introduction that highlights the intersections between religion, tourism, and the environment, the book then focuses on the environment as a resource or generator for religious tourism and as a recipient of the impacts of religious tourism. Chapters included discuss such important areas as theological views, environmental responsibility, and host perspectives.
This book coherently maps a path to sustainable global peace. Written by a team of scholars from many disciplines, each contribution provides one way to shift us from our current way of being and onto the path to peace. The work identifies a group of approaches relevant to the contemporary world and the crises we face. It covers politics, the environment, food security, architecture, and other areas of human activity. The authors see positive peace as a way to encourage humans to actively create a peace-filled world. Their essays suggest how, together, we can ensure that human flourishing is possible for all people. Peace activists, environmentalists, and climate scientists will find this a fascinating and thought-provoking read.
This insightful three-volume set examines faith through the social and cultural perspective of anthropology, sociology, and religious studies, shedding light on the role of religion in the human experience. Why is human suffering and the existence of evil part of the human experience? How does religious doctrine establish one's identity? In what ways does religion interact with and shape the social order? This thought-provoking work ponders these questions and explores the concept of religion from various perspectives: as a tool for self and community-based spiritual awareness, as a set of practices that translates faith into interaction with others, and as a cornerstone of society for those...
Understanding living religion requires students to experience everyday religious practice in diverse environments and communities. This guide provides the ideal introduction to fieldwork and the study of religion outside the lecture theatre. Covering theoretical and practical dimensions of research, the book helps students learn to ‘read’ religious sites and communities, and to develop their understanding of planning, interaction, observation, participation and interviews. Students are encouraged to explore their own expectations and sensitivities, and to develop a good understanding of ethical issues, group-learning and individual research. The chapters contain student testimonies, examples of student work and student-led questions.
This book provides a global and thematic examination of the relationships between archaeology and tourism, and a critical analysis of thinking in the area of archaeology-based tourism. It focuses on the differences and similarities between archaeology-based tourism and heritage tourism and highlights the interdependence and dissonance between tourism and archaeology and archaeological traditions. The volume offers a systematic investigation of current issues and implications in the relationship between tourism and archaeology from both tourism and archaeological perspectives. It is a key academic resource for students, researchers and practitioners in tourism, archaeology, cultural heritage management and anthropology.
"Shared" sites, where members of distinct, or factionally opposed, religious communities interact—or fail to interact—is the focus of this volume. Chapters based on fieldwork from such diverse sites as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, and Vietnam demonstrate how sharing and tolerance are both more complex and multifaceted than they are often recognized to be. By including both historical processes (the development of Chinese funerals in late imperial Beijing or the refashioning of memorial commemoration in the wake of the Vietnam war) and particular events (the visit of Pope John Paul II to shared shrines in Sri Lanka or the Al-Qaeda bombing of an ancient Jewish synagogue on the Island of Djerba in Tunisia), the volume demonstrates the importance of understanding the wider contexts within which social interactions take place and shows that tolerance and intercommunalism are simultaneously possible and perpetually under threat.