ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the ambiguity of such movement rather than on theoretical certainties by focusing on the work of producers of meaning and the religious, consumer and identity issues they tap into, either through their hands-on activities or stories in the shape of novels, films or guidebooks. Scholars concerned with pilgrimage have shown convincingly that religious diversity as well as boundary crossings between religious and secular occur at pilgrimage sites. To walk on a perceivably ancient pilgrimage route, to smell, see and touch an imagined past, favors a relocation of the self into imagined landscapes produced by various means of cultural reproduction. Contemporary pilgrimage also offers a connection to roots, and time to reflect on existential questions often inspired by a romantic longing for spirituality, all this while absorbing late-modern cultural trends emphasizing mobility, health and emotional healing.