We
are seeking contributions to a volume exploring pilgrimage in a global
context from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. This
volume is under consideration for publication in the book series Reflections on Early Modernity / Réflexions sur la première modernité published by the journal Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme. Whether
discussing visitations of local shrines or the great trans-regional
events like the Hajj and pilgrimages to faraway lands, the rite of
pilgrimage kept believers on the move, making pilgrims one of the most
visible manifestations of mobility and religious devotion. At the same
time, they served as central agents in reconstituting religious themes
and notions throughout the early modern period. Pilgrimage was an
intensely social and cultural event, as groups of various travelers
encountered each other, as well as other cultures, and experienced new
modes of living and other ways of worshiping. As a popular rite, it was
also an economic driver of local economies, providing services and goods
for travelers, which served the interests of powerful authorities.
After 1450, the expansion of maritime trading routes, wars, religious
change and a sharp rise and legitimization of curiosity, were among the
many forces that worked the extend the global reach of many faiths.
These forces also reshaped the practice of pilgrimage in the process.
It
is in this context of an increasingly interconnected and changing early
modern world that this volume will offer a forum for an investigation
of early modern pilgrimage in a comparative context. We are seeking
contributors working from the perspective of diverse disciplines (e. art
history, history, literature, anthropology), religious traditions (ie.
Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity) and regional contexts
who could engage with one or more of the following themes:
Pilgrimage and Identity
Journeys
of pilgrimage created a space where encounters took place among
pilgrims themselves, especially those who traveled in a group; between
pilgrims and people or communities they met on their way, especially the
communities who lived next to the holy places - the destination of the
journey; an encounter with the holy sites; as well as with the pilgrim's
own self. These encounters created many opportunities for the
re-examination of the pilgrims' boundaries of identity - religious and
cultural - as they were used to mark them in their countries of origin.
What was the contribution of these encounters to shaping a pilgrim's
religious identity? Or the identity of a pilgrim's community of origin?
Or alternatively: How the pilgrim's boundaries of identity are
reflected in his description of the "other communities", of the holy
sites, of the journey?
These are only a few possible questions to be discussed.
Pilgrimage and the Construction of Power
Just
as the purposes and motives of pilgrimage vary, so do the relationships
between pilgrims and political rulers. Many institutions connected with
sacred travel have been controlled or sponsored by such authorities,
who could collect contributions from pilgrims visiting the shrines
within their lands while promoting their reputations as devout leaders.
How did these institutions used pilgrimage to build their power? How did
it work when rulers and pilgrims were not of the same religion or
culture? How did it work when the holy site was worshiped by more than
one religion?
Pilgrimages have also prompted behaviors that have
proved deeply threatening to political and religious authorities. How
did the authorities react to the pilgrims' search for divine favor? How
did they react to their temporary release from everyday life, and the
volatile potential of a mass movement of people?
The Practice of Pilgrimage (ie. liturgy, relics, markets, hospices)
Although
pilgrimage is considered to be a journey taken for spiritual reasons
and it usually entails some separation from the everyday world of home,
it creates a physical world of its own, not to mention pilgrimage sites
tend to have a material focus. Pilgrimage involves, first and foremost, a
movement across physical and cultural landscapes, that raises the
questions of: routs, vehicles, inns, money-changers, translators, or
guides. What are the souvenirs, or relics, that were being transported
home? Their importance for the pilgrim's community? What were the
cultural performances, or rituals, whether at the holy sites or in
social encounters, that pilgrims were involved with?
Shrines and their Replicas
The
phenomenon of establishing or creating equivalents to sacred sites –
and occasionally, to an entire city (Jerusalem, Rome), is known in more
than a few contexts. It can be a second burial site of a holy person, a
sacred tradition being celebrated in more than one site, etc.
Documenting the origin and the replicas of a holy site is one goal, yet
another will be to discuss what makes a site an original? And what makes
it a replica? What were the historical contexts, and purpose for their
creation? And how did they affect pilgrimage routes and practices?
Pilgrimage Testimonies: Written and Visual/Pictoral
The
testimonies (written, visual, pictoral, other) created by pilgrims
testifies to the various ways in which the physical movement of pilgrims
between places and cultures shaped the intellectual and material
cultures of communities in both the pilgrims' places of origin and the
places they visited. These testimonies also interacted with, and became
vessels of, myriad intellectual and other traditions (scientific,
theological, literary, other), traditions that during the early modern
period were shifting in the ways that also came to reshape common
perceptions of the world in which pilgrims lived including conceptions
of the sacred.
Instructions for the Proposals
Each
chapter should address some of the questions raised in at least one of
the emphases outlined above. The maximum word length for each article is
10,000 words, including all notes and images. To
submit a proposal for an article, please send an abstract in either
English or French of no more than 600 words and a brief c.v. to Dr. Orit Ramon oritra@openu.ac.il no later than March 31, 2024.
You will hear by April 1, 2024 if your proposal to contribute a chapter
to the volume has been accepted. We will accept proposals from authors
at any stage from advanced graduate students to senior scholars.
For questions, please feel free to send an email to any of the editors:
Dr. Orit Ramon, Dept of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, Open University of Israel (oritra@openu.ac.il )
Dr. Megan Armstrong, Dept McMaster University, Canada (marmstr@mcmaster.ca )
Dr. Yamit Rachman-Schirre, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East (yamit.rachman@mail.huji.ac.il )
Contact Email
marmstr@mcmaster.ca
