In a Different Place: Pilgrimage, Gender and Politics at a Greek Island Shrine
This textured account of a modern pilgrimage combines ethnographic detail, theory, and personal reflection. Visited by thousands of pilgrims yearly, the Church of the Madonna of the Annunciation on the Aegean island of Tinos is a site where different interests - sacred and secular, local and national, personal and official - come together. Exploring the shrine and its surrounding town, Jill Dubisch shares her insights into the intersection of social, religious and political life in Greece. Along the way she develops the idea of pilgrimage - journeying away from home in search of the miraculous - as a metaphor for anthropological fieldwork. Dubisch examines in detail the process of pilgrimage itself, its relationship to Orthodox belief and practice, the motivations and behaviour of pilgrims, the relationship between religion and Greek national identity, and the gendered nature of religious roles. Seeking to evoke rather than simply describe, her book presents readers with a sense of the emotion, colour, and power of pilgrimage at this Greek island shrine.