“In Dubious Battle on the Plains of Heav'n”: The Politics of Possession in Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre

Abstract

Debates about the "divisibility" or "sharing" of religious sites continue to engage historians, political scientists and anthropologists. This paper assesses the issue of agency in two of the more salient critiques of religious coexistence before approaching the Holy Sepulchre, or Anastasis, as a site for investigating the way various constituencies, most significantly visiting pilgrims and resident monks, have dealt with issues of "sharing". It contends that inter-communal antagonisms there originate with elite struggles over the possessions of places-struggles which tend to engage political actors far from the site of the conflicts rather than local communities-and concludes that, rather than accept an "identitarian politics" which assumes a profound "civilisational" attachment of cultures to religious identities, we must carefully assess the "politics of possession" which variously play out in sites of inter-communal engagement.

Domestic Space and Socio-spatial Relationships in Rural Pakistan

“…Social spaces are shared between individuals and between communities. The shared aspects of space give rise to identities, based on various types of localities, extending the basis of a village, a city or a country; which may cause cohesion or generate conflict over their use (Bowman, 2011;Dandy & Van der Wal, 2011;Gupta & Ferguson, 1992;Nieto & Franzé, 1997;Watts, 1992). Social space thus reflects the rules and principles of social relations, networks and hierarchies.…”

“This is our little hajj”: Muslim holy sites and reappropriation of the sacred landscape in contemporary Bosnia

“…Groupism can also be found in Roy E. Hassner's (2009, 2010) prominent work on shared sacred spaces. Hassner, for example, asserts that “sacred places invite conflict with rival groups who strive to compete for access or legitimacy or who simply wish to inflict harm on their opponents” (2010:149, emphasis added; see also Bowman 2011:373). As I have argued elsewhere, such analytical essentialism reduces complex social fabrics to their ethnonational or collective identitarian dimensions while overlooking other related processes happening on the ground (Henig 2012; also Sorabji 2008).…”

Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

“…In the Holy Land, the influence of two thousand years of Western Christianity has strongly shaped colonial projects (Obenzinger 1999;Said, 1979;Vessey et al 2011), Zionism (Feldman 2007Raz-Krakotzkin 1998), and current Western policies (McAlister 2005: 30-33). Many places of pilgrimage are contested among various denominations, sub-groups, and political movements within religious, ethnic, or national groups (Bilu 1988;Bowman 2000Bowman , 2011 R. Cohen 2008), and between commoditizing forces of the hospitality industry and ecclesiastical bodies (Bowman 1992). The theoretical tools used to understand storied spaces will be primarily drawn from the social constructivist vein, because pilgrims' experience of place is mediated by the reading and embodiment of texts, as well as socialities and ways of seeing and experiencing brought with them from their life-worlds elsewhere.…”

“…In the Holy Land, the influence of two thousand years of Western Christianity has strongly shaped colonial projects (Obenzinger 1999;Said, 1979;Vessey et al 2011), Zionism (Feldman 2007;Raz-Krakotzkin 1998), and current Western policies (McAlister 2005: 30-33). Many places of pilgrimage are contested among various denominations, sub-groups, and political movements within religious, ethnic, or national groups (Bilu 1988;Bowman 2000Bowman , 2011R. Cohen 2008), and between commoditizing forces of the hospitality industry and ecclesiastical bodies (Bowman 1992).…”