Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The articles in this special section on pilgrimage and the Holy Lands provide a wide range of perspectives on the practice, representation, and production of sacred space as expressions of knowledge and power. The experience of space of the pilgrim and the politically committed tourist is characterized by distance, impermanence, desire, contestation, and the entwinement of the material and the spiritual. The wealth of historical Christian and Western narratives/images of the Holy Land, the short duration of pilgrimage, the encounter with otherness, the entextualization of sites, and the semiotic nature of tourism all open a gap between the perceptions of pilgrims and those of 'natives' . Although the intertwining of symbolic condensation, legitimation, and power makes these Holy Land sites extremely volatile, many pilgrimages sidestep confrontation with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as inimical to the spirit of pilgrimage. A comparative view of the practices of contemporary Holy Land pilgrims demonstrates how communitas and conflict, openness and isolation are constantly being negotiated.n KEYWORDS: conflict, Holy Land, home, materiality, narratives, performances, pilgrimage, sacred spaces, tourism Edith Turner (2005: 7145-7148) provides the following definition of pilgrimage: "A religious believer in any culture may sometimes look beyond the local temple, church, or shrine, feel the call of some distant holy place renowned for miracles and the revivification of faith, and resolve to journey there. " According to this definition, the space of pilgrimage is a renowned place, a storied place. Like Mount Moriah of Isaac's sacrifice, it is "one of the mountains I shall tell thee of " (Genesis 22:2; King James translation), a distant space beyond a horizon that becomes a focus of vision and imagination, one that calls people to take to the road to journey there-a place that creates desire and, perhaps, transformation. The spiritual charge or 'magnetism' (Preston 1992) of the place, the accretion of new stories around the original ones, the transmission of those narratives in text, ritual, and iconography through generations and beyond borders-all this leads to the success of a site's career, but it also sows the seeds of conflict. The sheer number of individuals attending the site makes it a source of legitimation for believers with differing visions and a Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places n 107 point of contestation between the conflicting claims of locals and visitors, laity and hierarchy, and more. Should one lapse into comfort, into taken-for-grantedness at such a place, some other will be there to remind one that claims and stories must be voiced (yet again), flags unfurled, and rituals displayed to reassert a sense of belonging to what cannot be fully possessed. Space and Place in Pilgrimage-Centers Out ThereThe study of space and place in religion has developed at a rapid pace since the spatial turn in anthropology in the 1990s, although studies of pilgrimage and the Holy Land-b...

Constructing and deconstructing the sacred geography of Hebron: Movement and pilgrimage in and around the Tomb of the Patriarchs

“…Thus, pilgrimage is ‘a journey to recollect, travel that reactivates a mythic knowledge still buzzing softly as a background to consciousness, an implied structure on which the chaos of daily life can fumble about secure’ (Greenia, 2014: 11). Places of pilgrimage have been defined as storied places (Feldman, 2014) where pilgrims not only relate to the memory of the past but also attempt to create their own memories. Movement toward the core of memory at the heart of the TOP is a drive to experience the serene and peaceful environment associated with the patriarch’s relationship with the divine and to associate with the site’s axial nature.…”

“…Several Tripadvisor comments on Hebron are titled in that vein, such as ‘going back to where we came from’ 1 (Jewish visitor from New Jersey) and ‘Hebron – the place where it all began’ (Christian visitor from Tennessee). 2 The idea of a site of pilgrimage as ‘home’ may seem paradoxical: as Feldman has noted ‘Unlike spaces of home, pilgrims’ (2014: 107) sense of place is not home; it is marked by impermanence, by not dwelling’. In this case, the movement toward ‘home’ indicates a longing for an authentic and untouched reality.…”

“…As Feldman suggests ‘Performances may be a way of resisting the hegemonic order imposed on space, but they may also be used to assert the right of the powerful to public or contested space’ (2014: 111). Indeed, the act of covering the body in the TOP sometimes serves as a means of identification, indigenization, and strengthening of the political order.…”

Key figure of mobility: the pilgrim

“…The idealised ‘home’ of religious visions reproduced through paintings, copies and relics (Wharton ) in potential pilgrims' places of residence and local sites of worship may infuse the unfamiliar with an uncanny sense of familiarity. Alternatively, these representations may engender disappointment or even rage, when the imagined ‘home’ and the actual world at the site of pilgrimage do not properly align (Feldman ). The power of ritual and images may be so important that the sacred sites ‘out there’ are identified, marked and re‐marked in accordance with those understandings.…”

Immaculate Conception of Gender: The Marian Phenomenon Among Catholic Women Pilgrims

“…Scholars have also examined the narratives, philosophy, literature, and depictions associated with pilgrimage and the social, cultural, and economic aspects of pilgrimage tourism. These studies contribute to our understanding of the diverse motivations, practices, and meanings of pilgrimage in different cultural and religious contexts (Alatas, 2019; Buitelaar, 2020; Buitelaar et al, 2020; Coleman, 2002; Feldman, 2014; Jafari and Scott, 2014; Nordin, 2009; Sepp and Remmel, 2020; Ulak, 2022).…”