Pilgrim and path: the emergence of self and world on a walking pilgrimage in Ireland

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Date
2019-09-16
Authors
Scriven, Richard
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SAGE Publications
Published Version
10.1177/1474474019876622
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Abstract
This article foregrounds the pilgrim, as a relational identity, to explore the co-emergence of self and world through embodied spatial practices. The pilgrim, as a liminal and mobile figure, is aligned with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological concept of the ‘flesh’, which presents subject and object as co-incipient. An auto-ethnographic study of the Croagh Patrick pilgrimage in the west of Ireland combines interview accounts from research participants and my own fieldwork experiences. This journey into the performative and liminal aspects of pilgrimages examines of how pilgrim and path emerge in an intermeshing of body and landscape, the spiritual and material and culture and praxis. In mobilising the figure of the pilgrim, this article contributes to disciplinary discussions concerning phenomenology/post-phenomenology, while highlighting the significance of pilgrimage as a purposeful performance.
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Keywords
Embodiment , Merleau-Ponty , Phenomenology , Pilgrim , Pilgrimage
Citation
Scriven, R. (2019) 'Pilgrim and path: the emergence of self and world on a walking pilgrimage in Ireland', Cultural Geographies. doi: 10.1177/1474474019876622
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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474474019876622
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/8998
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Geography - Journal Articles
Copyright
© 2019, the Author. Published by SAGE Publications. Reuse of this Accepted Manuscript is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.