Approaching the Sacred

Pilgrimages have become extremely popular in times of postmodernity. Technological innovations, processes of social dynamism and the blurring boundaries to tourism have changed the conditions under which they take place. In order to understand these transformations but also to discover ongoing continuities, the volume analyzes pilgrimages and processions in different historical epochs and cultural traditions. The great variety of cultural traditions allows insight into the social and physical organizations of non-European pilgrimages and their expansion by diaspora communities to different continents. The various meanings and construction of sacred places, under stood as landscapes of imaginations, reflect the creative processes of which pilgrims are part. In establishing such sacred topographies, questions of identity in relation to state power become important in many studies. Written by an interdisciplinary group of authors the texts display a wide range of methods and controversial issues of theories adding to our understanding of pilgrimages as cultural archives. --- In der Reihe BERLIN STUDIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD erscheinen Monographien und Sammelbände aller altertumswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen. Die Publikationen gehen aus der Arbeit des Exzellenzclusters "Topoi. The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations" hervor, einem Forschungsverbund der Freien Universität Berlin und der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin sowie den Partnerinstitutionen Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Max-Planck- Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Die Reihe ist Bestandteil der Publikationsplattform Edition Topoi. Alle Bände der Reihe sind elektronisch unter www.edition-topoi.org verfügbar.