How to Cite

Beyond Turner: Anthropological Approaches and Medieval Pilgrimage Texts, in Bauer, Martin, Booth, Philip and Fischer, Susanna (Eds.): To Jerusalem and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Latin Travel Literature, c.1200-1500, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2023 (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte, Volume 19), p. 161–188. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.998.c15845

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.998
ISBN 978-3-96822-129-8 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-130-4 (Hardcover)

Published

07/20/2023

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Authors

Philip Booth

Beyond Turner

Anthropological Approaches and Medieval Pilgrimage Texts

Abstract Recent years have seen a significant growth within the field of pilgrimage studies. Mainly the purview of anthropologists and ethnographers, pilgrimage studies, and increasingly the interrelated field of tourism studies, are able to provide scholars of medieval Holy Land pil­grimage with a rich array of analytical tools which we can use. This chapter presents some of the more significant de­velopments within the field of pilgrimage / tourism studies and by taking the examples of two medieval Holy Land pil­grims, Riccoldo of Monte Croce and Felix Fabri, attempts to demonstrate ways in which these developments can be put to use. It suggests that we should adopt more fluid un­derstandings of pilgrimage and looks at how the concept of the ‘gaze’, developed from Foucauldian ideas by John Urry (1990) and others since can serve as a useful model for understanding the role of sight and encounters with the ‘Other’ in medieval pilgrimage texts. More importantly, it advocates for a diversification in our approaches as me­dievalists and signals pilgrimage studies as a worthwhile avenue for future exploration.