24/07/2024
On July 25, the double PilNet panel "Doing anthropology of pilgrimages through images" (P117) will take place in Barcelona during the 18th European Association of Social Anthropologists EASA Biennial Conference.
This face-to-face panel proposes to explore new ways of studying the polysemous phenomenon of pilgrimages through the mediation of still and moving images. It focuses on images – in a broad sense – produced by both social actors (e.g. pilgrims) and anthropologists.
Convenors : John Eade (Univ of Roehampton) and Manoël Pénicaud (IDEAS Institut d’ethnologie et d'anthropologie sociale, CNRS)
Location: Facultat de Geografia i Història, room 206, from 9am to 1pm
More info: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/p/14633 #
Long abstract:
The field of Pilgrimage Studies is closely connected to that of images, as Victor and Edith Turner's "Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture" (1978) already indicated. In keeping with a long tradition of thinking through images in anthropology, this panel proposes to explore new ways of studying the polysemous phenomenon of pilgrimages through the mediation of still and moving images. In order to embrace various interests, images are understood here in a very broad sense to include engravings, paintings, icons, postcards, photographs, videos, 3D pictures, GIS storymaps...
The panel deals with two main issues. The first focuses on the study of images that already "exist" during pilgrimages, in the sense that they are not produced by the researcher but by pilgrims, craftsmen, artists, photographers, filmmakers etc. They may be old documents, works of art, holy or sacred images or even images posted on social networks by pilgrims. The second issue concerns the images produced by anthropologists in the field. How are these images made? What are the specific features of pictures taken during a crowded pilgrimage? How are they then analysed and linked to written observations? They may simply be visual field notes, or they may become a form of publication per se.
Finally, this panel invites discussion of methodological techniques, tools, legal concerns and epistemological reflections when approaching pilgrimages through still and/or moving images.
Keywords: pilgrimages; images; visual anthropology; photography; videography; methodology
This panel proposes to explore new ways of studying the polysemous phenomenon of pilgrimages through the mediation of still and moving images. It focuses on images – in a broad sense – produced by both social actors (e.g. pilgrims) and anthropologists.
