The topic I am going to discuss is pilgrimages and more specifically I am going to compare the traditional pilgrimages of the Hindu traditions with modern pilgrimages in America. My research question is that pilgrimages are present in many cultures and have been for thousands of years, are these places then intrinsically sacred or do we give them meaning? To answer this I will analyze the traditional Hindu pilgrimage in Hardwar and various untraditional pilgrimage sites in America including natural wonders and tourist attractions. I will be using sources specifically about American pilgrimages and Hindu pilgrimages as well as some sources about spiritual places and the geographies of pilgrimages in general. I will first give a general overview …show more content…
Contemporary pilgrimage incorporates a whole range of culturally or nationalistic motivated journeys and despite a general decline in religious practice in the Western world, pilgrimage has witnessed a revival in recent decades. American pilgrimages are more unique because we don’t have as much history, so I will focus more of my paper on these. I will use the source Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions to discuss how different tourist attractions in America are sacred and have cultural value. Many of these attractions are natural wonders which is similar to how Hardwar’s religious identity is inextricably tied to the river Ganges. Many of my sources discuss how America has a wide range of religions as well as many people who don’t identify with any particular religion but who still consider themselves spiritual. There are numerous different types of pilgrimages in America that religious and nonreligious people frequent. An example of these types of pilgrimage from the book “Choosing Our Religion” is a labyrinth which was popularized in the United States in the 1990s. People will go on journeys from one labyrinth to the next all over the country to practice walking meditation and spirituality. The labyrinths are typically modeled on medieval designs that were meant to provide a localized experience of pilgrimage to the Holy
The first distinguishing factor of a pilgrimage lies in how a pilgrimage searches for truth. While spiritual tourism may involve an individual merely quickly glancing at the surface of spirituality, a spiritual pilgrimage seeks to fully understand the character of God. Chase Falson proves this to be true in the way that his old convictions begin to fall apart. His Laodicean
The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours.. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if the culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities between them. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful.
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times, or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the Sonqo area.
The article written by Alexis Celeste Bunten called “Sharing culture or selling out?” talks about the theory of “commodified persona” or the “self commodification” of a tourism worker in Sitka and how capitalism has influenced the way a tour guide is presented. Chapter eleven in Charles C. Mann’s book called “1491, New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus” is a slight summary of the second half of the book which talks about how similar Indians were more advanced than the colonists and that we should accept the fact that indigenous people and their societies have influenced American culture.
After the Second World War mass tourism has increased worldwide and has affected almost all countries. Mexico has become a ‘major tourist destination’ and also ethic tourism has taken off, because tourists became more interested in the indigenous cultures and search for authenticity. Nowadays ethnic tourism makes up ‘10% of Mexico’s tourism sector’ (Van Den Berghe 568). This essay will especially examine the commoditisation of the Maya identity; Maya was ‘a highly developed Mesoamerican culture centred in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico’ (McKay et al 307). Over the last two decades Western tourists have become interested in Indian cultures, traditions and artefacts and they would like to see ‘living Maya culture’, therefore tour guides, tourees, middlemen and artisans have started to work in the ethnic tourism sector. According to Medina ‘The commoditization of culture for tourism may involve the utilization of new channels to access cultural traditions of great antiquity’ (354). To illustrate this: only 20.5% of the inhabitants of San Jose Succotz identifies with the Maya culture (Medina 360). Maya culture is less available through lived experience, because Maya languages and rituals disappear, therefore villagers working in the ethnic tourism sector have to gain knowledge by utilizing other, new channels. Ethic tourism often develops around archaeological sites; tour guides will take tourists to Maya ruins and transfer knowledge that they had gained from the ethnographers, archaeologists, and epigraphers (Medina 362). Some people argue that this ‘staged culture’ is not similar to the ‘authentic culture’. It might be possible that the culture transferred to the tourists at the moment is different from the way Mayans used to do. H...
There is a famous quote by writer Joseph Campbell that says, “Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again”. That says, everyone has a sacred space. For some that is their bedroom, for others it is a religious or spiritual place. No matter what, however, everyone gets the same feeling, the same release from their sacred place, but some people must go further, or make a pilgrimage to get to their sacred space or spaces. I will be addressing the sacred places of pilgrimage in Buddhism.
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
Wills, Chuck, Destination America: The People and Cultures That Created a Nation. New York: DK Publishing, 2005. Print.
Two of America’s early tourist destinations in the nineteenth century were Niagara Falls and the Catskill Mountain area. This essay will mainly focus on Frederic Church’s personal contributions to the development of a national identity, and the tourism industry, in relation to these destinations in the midst of expansion throughout America. Through paintings and lithographic reproductions, the American and European public became increasingly aware of the magnificent beauty of America’s unique landscapes, along with the growing phenomenon of scenic touring.2
Suter, Keith. “Roadside Memorials: Sacred Places in a Secular Era.” Contemporary Review 292.1692 (Spring 2010): 51+. Psychology Collection. EBSCO: Academic Onefile. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
Ludwig, Theodore M. The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World (4th Edition). 4 ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2005.
This is a comparison paper on modern day sacred secular places versus mythological secular places in history. This report will summarize what elements mythical secular sites have in common. The report will explain how Ground Zero qualifies as a modern day secular site. The significance and functions of the twin towers before the attack will be addressed. Ground zero will be compared with the Areca Tree, noting differences in meaning, function, and common elements. Our modern day secular site is Ground Zero. On September 11, 2001; 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four jet airliners. At 8:45am. American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) and exploded. At 9:03am, United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the south tower of the world trade center and exploded. At 9:17am the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shut down all New York City airports. 9:21am the port authority of New York and New Jersey order that all bridges and tunnels in the New York area are closed. 9:30 am. President Bush announced the country has suffered an "apparent terrorist attack." 9:40am, for the first time in history Federal Aviation Administration halted all air traffic nationwide. 10:05am, the south tower of the World Trade Center collapses and a massive cloud of debris and dust expands from crash site. 10:28am The World Trade Center north tower collapses from the top down. 11:18am American Airlines reports it has lost two aircraft. Flight 11, a Boeing 767 had 81 passengers and 11 crew members. Flight 77, a Boeing 757, had 58 passengers and six crew members. 2995 people died that morning including the 19 hijackers. 156 innocent civilian passengers, 2605 civilians died on the ground. ...
Sowing the Seeds of the Lotus: A Journey to the Great Pilgrimage Sites of Buddhism, Part I" by John C. Huntington. Orientations, November 1985.Print.
Tourism is a popular leisure activity in today’s society, many people love to travel with their family and friends because it is a good way to relax and to explore the world. It is fortune to live in the present because people have internet or other kinds of media such as guide book, it is more easy to know the unique culture and feature in different countries. Through these representations that media presents, people form an impression or opinion about a specific group of people or country. In this essay, I will look at how authenticity, representation and tourism affect each other. First, historical event leads to a misleading or incorrect representation to a country, which means tourists prejudge other group of people through historical issue and assume they act and think the same way as before.
The experience that I have had at the Hindu Temple was somewhat different that I have anticipated. Right from the beginning, I immersed in a culture that was so unfamiliar to me and so rich in culture and history. First, as I walked in the Temple, I noticed a big pile of shoes on the floor; I realized I have to remove my shoes at the entrance and place in the shoe rack. First thing, that came to my mind, why they did not put their shoes in the shoe rack. I sure I felt different and uncomfortable walking barefoot with the jacket on. As I started walking inside of the room, I remembered to move clockwise as I visit each Deity. As a visitor, I tried to be mindful of their expectation. There was a bell at each deity that I was not aware of its purpose. Truthfully, it was a bit intimidating and uncomfortable, as I did not know what to follow. As I kept walking around the room, I noticed small groups of people were sitting on the floor quietly chanting. Little further, there were another small group of people standing in front of Deity praying along with the priest. Assumed these groups of people could have a different event than other groups