ABSTRACT
Pilgrimage, one of the religious and cultural phenomena most common in human societies, is an important feature of the world's major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Religion has exerted geopolitical influence for most of human history, when the boundaries dividing one civilisation from another were, in part, drawn along religious lines. Transgression, in the sense of going beyond accepted limits, occurs when people criticise something they judge as deviant in order to strengthen their own ideological position. The politics of religion in Israel, as elsewhere in the world and particularly in the Middle East, is inherently conflict-laden, and the conflict extends far beyond the well-publicised ArabIsrael conflict. The diversity and complex social and psychological landscapes underlying these transgressions demand methodologies that can uncover the richness and robustness of stakeholder perceptions and narratives. Another key factor in transgression has to do with the local population's sense of power. The transgression in Nazareth actually has two aspects.
