Anotace
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of pilgrimage beginning with an exploration of the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. The ancient origins of this pilgrimage, and its transformation into a commercial and logistical marvel of the modern world foreground what pilgrimage means in the 21st century. The course explores tourism, sacred places, dark tourism, sport pilgrimage and virtual pilgrimage. Students are encouraged to consider their own pilgrimages and travels and to register the meaning and importance of these. Modern pilgrimage is explored through contrasting academic approaches of religious studies, tourism, sport, geography, and media studies.
Questions of pilgrimage extend to notions of a sociological division between the sacred and profane. How feasible is it to divide secular tourism and sacred pilgrimage in the modern world? Of further concern is how pilgrimage equips us to connect to community, ritualise place and time, and meet the ultimate challenges of life and death.