Conference The Power of Marian Pilgrimage, 1-3 February 2007

Conference The Power of Marian Pilgrimage. Religious objects, narratives and performances

International conference organised by the research group ‘The power of Pilgrimage. A comparative Study’, Institute for Gender Studies and Department of Cultural Anthropology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Place of venue:
Nijmegen/Ravenstein/Soeterbeeck, The Netherlands.

It is a pleasure to invite you for the conference ‘The Power of Marian Pilgrimage. Religious objects, narratives and performances’, to be held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The purpose of the conference is to share developments in research on Marian devotion, pilgrimage and on the significance of religious objects, narratives and performances as ways to challenge dominant power structures.

At the beginning of the 21st century, despite being conventionally regarded as secularist, Mary remains a powerful symbol, attracting people from different cultural and religious contexts. Mary’s popularity indicates that the decline in religious participation in Christian churches does not reflect a decline in people’s religiosity. Considering Mary’s fame and the increasing participation in Marian pilgrimage all over the world, the conference aims to address the importance of Marian pilgrimages and Marian sites as places where religious actors avail themselves of religion to contest power inequality and to express their suffering related to this inequality. This implies we do not only focus on pilgrim sites, but also on daily life which entails people’s sufferings.

The central question of the conference is: In what ways do subdominant groups use the power of Mary in objects, narratives, and performances, to challenge dominant power structures and social inequality? This question is rooted in historical, sociological, and theological observations that Mary often appears to the less powerful in the religious or social hierarchy: women and children, sick and old, or ethnically and religiously marginalized people. Also the visitors of Marian shrines contain a more than average share of socially weak. This relates to the theoretical interest in knowing how Marian devotion is connected with power inequality based on gender, class, ethnicity, health, religion and age. The premise is that the marginalized, for whom the use of authority or violence to resolve conflicts is an option less available, perform religion to contest restrictions and to promote personal well-being.

Focussing on religious objects, narratives, and performances, the conference aims to explore why pilgrims are attracted to Mary in a particular cultural context. What is the social background of the pilgrims visiting the sanctuaries? What are their specific wishes and goals? How do they negotiate with the supernatural? What does Mary offer pilgrims and what do pilgrims offer Mary by being creative agents in constructing new forms of religion?

The first theme of the conference will be on the iconography of Mary and artefacts connected to the pilgrimage sites. Mary statues at the souvenir market are easily characterised as Christian kitsch, having no intrinsic or aesthetic value. However, the drama, as well as power of Mary does not reside in the icon’s artistic quality but in the stories about the object, the rituals performed with the object and the social relations established through the object. A second theme concerns the personal narratives of the pilgrims who visit Marian pilgrimage places. Religious idioms offer people the possibility to express pain and suffering, that otherwise would remain hidden and invisible. The third theme focuses on the performances of Marian devotees and pilgrims through which religious meaning is created. Objects, narratives and performances transform private into public meanings and are vital human strategies to sustain a sense of agency in the face of disempowering circumstances. Through these central foci, the conference addresses people’s religious experiences in both pilgrimage sites and daily life.

Presenters

In order to facilitate discussion and selection of papers for the conference volume, presenters are kindly requested to send their papers to the conference organisers (cpmp@maw.ru.nl) by December 15, 2006.

Auditors

Although it is no longer possible to participate as a presenter, it is still possible to register as an auditor (see registration and payment).

Deadline for final registration and payment is December 1, 2006.
For details see: registration and paymentIf you have any questions, please contact Anna-Karina Hermkens and Catrien Notermans (cpmp@maw.ru.nl, 00-31-24-3616255).

We look forward to your reaction.

Prof. dr. Willy Jansen, dr. Catrien Noterman and dr. Anna-Karina Hermkens