Pilgrimage, Consumption and Rituals: Spiritual Authenticity in a Shia Muslim Pilgrimage

The aim of this study is to understand how authenticity is evoked in a religious pilgrimage and the relationship between authenticity, rituals and consumption.

A critical dimension of pilgrimage is arguably pilgrims’ experience, in particular the authenticity of their experience. The aim of the study is to understand how authenticity is evoked in a religious pilgrimage and the relationship between authenticity, rituals and consumption. The research contributes ethnographic insights from a lesser known, yet significant, Muslim pilgrimage called Ziyara-t-Arba’een. In so doing, pilgrimages are conceptualised as a quest for spiritual authenticity, a hybrid form of existential, ideological and objective authenticity. The findings section leads to a discussion of the ways in which spiritual authenticity is realised through rituals and the consumption of texts, material objects and space. The contribution of this paper is threefold: 1) it explores the different dimensions of authenticity in a pilgrimage experience; 2) it examines the role of material culture and ritual consumption in achieving forms of authenticity; and 3) it broadens the understanding of the pilgrimage as a context-bound and culturally specific phenomenon.

Bibliographic Information

Title: Pilgrimage, Consumption and Rituals: Spiritual Authenticity in a Shia Muslim Pilgrimage

Author(s): Mona Moufahim & Maria Lichrou

Published in: Tourism Management 70 (2019)

 Language: English

Length: 10 page

Pilgrimage, Consumption and Rituals