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Today, I’m going to spotlight some of the works of pilgrimage research that I built upon in Pilgrimage. These aren’t for everyone; the readability of research studies varies much more widely than memoirs. Before I ventured down this road, though, I never appreciated just how much good, interesting work is being done on the topic of pilgrimage, and how valuable it was for deepening my own perspective on the subject.
Nancy Louise Frey – Pilgrim Stories: On and Off the Road to Santiago – An absolute classic, a masterpiece of anthropology, and highly readable. Even though Frey’s research dates to what feels like a distant era in the Camino’s redevelopment (the 1990s), her account remains relevant and insightful.
Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman (Eds) – Pilgrimage and Healing – This was a great concept for an anthology, and the editors executed it quite well, assembling a richly varied set of essays on pilgrimage’s restorative potential. Their introduction is excellent, and I also benefited from Coleman’s essay on healing at Walsingham, Dubisch’s essay on the “Run for the Wall” (Vietnam veterans on motorcycles), and the two essays devoted to Canindé, Brazil.
Ian McIntosh – Pilgrimage Walking to Peace, Walking for Change – One of the more readable (and affordable!) works on this list, by a scholar who is centrally involved in the realm of pilgrimage studies. McIntosh highlights the potential of pilgrimage for peace-building work. On the podcast, we discussed his forays in Gaza and Sri Lanka, in particular
Alan Morinis (Ed) – Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage – A very helpful collection for pushing beyond a Western/Christian frame of reference. I found Stanley’s essay on Pandharpur to be particularly useful, along with Morinis’s general framing of pilgrimage studies. Unfortunately, like a lot of academic publications, it costs a fortune.
William Swatos (Ed) – On the Road to Being There – A collection of essays on the intersection of pilgrimage, tourism, and modernity. I found Ozorak’s essay on the transformative potential of pilgrimage and Rountree’s essay on the “goddess pilgrimage” to be instructive
Ellen Badone and Sharon R. Roseman (Eds) – Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism – A collection of ethnographic/anthropological essays on the contemporary resurgence of pilgrimage. Holmes-Rodman’s essay on her experience on the Chimayó pilgrimage was particularly instructive.
Victor and Edith Turner – Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture / Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society – These are classics in the field of pilgrimage studies, shaping much of the discourse that followed. They are not classics in terms of readability.
