ABSTRACT
In this introductory chapter, the co-editors place the volume within the context of wider research and explore the complicated relationship between pilgrimage, travel and tourism, which has been discussed by other authors through such hybrid etic categories as pilgrimage tourism, religious tourism, spiritual pilgrimage and secular pilgrimage. Drawing on these etic approaches and case studies from the volume, the editors raise the crucial issue of the volume: the relationship between etic definitions of pilgrimage, religion, the sacred and secular, and emic understandings of these and other relevant categories. This discussion leads towards the debate about the extent to which Western etic definitions of pilgrimage and tourism, as well as such related terms as religion, sacred and secular, can be applied in non-Western contexts.
The editors define and frame the main concepts of the volume – military pilgrimage and battlefield tourism – as pilgrimages organised by the military and/or organisations closely connected to the military that involve people who are visiting and commemorating places that have or had connections with military conflict and death. These pilgrimages, according to the editors, link death and commemoration with memory, material culture and rituals performed at particular places. Through different rituals and commemorations, the sites become ‘sacred’ because of the sacrifice they represent and the emotional and spiritual reaction they generate among those in active military service, veterans or re-enactors. In this manner, places that would not usually be labelled as sacred become interpreted as places of pilgrimage. Consequently, military pilgrimages, commemorations and battlefield tourism are journeys in time and space that connect the past and the present.
