Victor Turner's theoretical analysis about pilgrimage

Abstract

Religious anthropologists study religious rituals and rituals to understand religious experiences and actions. Meanwhile, Victor Turner is one of the most famous researchers in the field of anthropology of religion. One of his most important measures is to obtain the necessary tools to conduct anthropological studies on complex rituals such as pilgrimage. Now this research is trying to present a clear picture of Victor Turner's analysis about the ritual of pilgrimage, understanding its meanings as well as the classification and position of this concept in the realm of religious and cultural behaviors. Likewise, the examination of Turner's instrumental concepts and how to implement these concepts in the analysis of the pilgrimage ritual is the goal of this research.

Victor Turner, inspired by Van Jenp, considers the ritual to include three stages of separation, barrier and connection, the process of a ritual from within, as well as the key concepts of barrier, congregation, structure and anti-structure, cultural and social dynamics, Victor Turner's necessary tool to make a big leap in The anthropology of religion is from the study of primitive rituals in primitive tribes to more complex rituals in today's religions.

In the first chapter, the generalities of the problem are explained, and in the second chapter, an attempt is made to explain the concepts of ritual and pilgrimage, as well as approaches to the study of pilgrimage and its classifications, as well as the expression of Turner's life and thought. In the third chapter, Turner's method has been relied on in the analysis of rituals. In this chapter, the concepts of symbol, barrier and community in Turner's thought have been investigated. In the fourth chapter, the dimensions of Turner's analysis on the ritual of pilgrimage have been investigated so that in this way an image of Turner's analytical method can be obtained in practice. The fifth chapter is dedicated to the conclusion, and finally some suggestions are presented.

Key words: Victor Turner, pilgrimage, Astangi, congregation, religion, anthropology of religion.

Problem outline

Although religion is an interdisciplinary field But the analysis of human encounter with religious experience is more the responsibility of the philosophy of religion and the psychology of religion. In this, the contribution of the anthropology of religion should not be ignored in dealing with the analysis of human action in relation to religious experience, studies that have occupied the minds of anthropologists for more than half a century. On the other hand, pilgrimage, which according to the reports of the participants is full of religious experiences, should be called the best religious ritual that has the ability to move millions of people in the world. Pilgrimage has stabilized the economy of some countries today. Pilgrimage helps political, social, cultural and religious stability. Therefore, the basic question of this research is to find an anthropological model to explain people's perception of their encounter with religious experience, which is manifested in the form of studying and analyzing the ritual of pilgrimage. Victor Turner, as acknowledged by anthropological researchers, is one of the first religious anthropologists who focused his attention on people's perception of religious experience. He was able to penetrate the atheistic atmosphere of his time and show the courage to enter the topics of anthropology in the analysis of human action at the moment of facing the religious experience. Instead of focusing only on the function of rituals, Turner returned to an African tribe for two whole years to study and observe the actions of humans within the ritual. It took Turner ten years to acquire the concepts necessary to enter into the study of more complex rituals in more complex religions, but eventually he did. In his book, the image of ministry in Christian culture, he goes to pilgrimage in Christianity.  The importance of his work is enough that after the publication of his book about image and pilgrimage in Christian culture, the anthropology of pilgrimage is practically born.

This research seeks to give a clear picture of Turner's analysis of the anthropological study of the ritual of pilgrimage. The main problem of this research is not the analysis of the details of a ritual, which would require a very large volume, but the goal of achieving a theoretical analysis. is to step beyond the details and help us in obtaining an anthropological tool for every religious ritual beyond pilgrimage.This research examines the pilgrimage ritual by using the theory of social process, structure and anti-structure on the one hand, and on the other hand, the theory of community and threshold, which are developed by Turner. On the one hand, dealing with the human encounter with religious experience from the perspective of anthropology of religion, despite the many limitations of anthropologists compared to other disciplines of religion, can open the way to expand the scope of interdisciplinary studies around religion and achieve new achievements. And on the other hand, pilgrimage as the greatest religious ritual that has the ability to move millions of people around the world should be examined from an anthropological point of view.

Research background

The western background of examining Turner's theories is extensive. Among these, Matthew Deflam's relatively comprehensive research titled "Ritual, Anti-Structure and Religion, a discussion around Victor Turner's processual symbolic analysis" can be mentioned. This research has been published with the following specifications:

Deflem, Mathieu. 1991. "Ritual, Anti-Structure, and Religion: A Discussion of Victor Turner's Processual Symbolic Analysis." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30(1):1-25

In this research, an attempt has been made to mention the development of Turner's ideas while telling the story of Turner's life. This research has a good start in the field of Turner's ten years of scientific work in the field of Ndembu tribe, but it is unable to comprehensively analyze the key concepts of Astangi and Jamaatwara Turner, which is related to the second decade of his scientific work. Also, in this research, Turner's ideas about pilgrimage have not been discussed.

The background of Persian language in the field of Turner's ideas is not extensive. Some have only mentioned that he is the owner of a theory in the field of ritual analysis, and some have translated a part of his works. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fiona Bowie's book with the following characteristics is one of the best available sources.

2 Bowie, Fiona, An Introduction to the Anthropology of Religion, translated by Mehrdad Arabi, Tehran, Naqd Afkar Publishing Company, 1390.

This book is one of the best books in the field of anthropology of religion that has been translated into Persian. It can also be considered as a reference for the anthropology of religion. The sixth chapter of this book is devoted to the "theory of rituals, rituals of transition and violence of Mensky". In this chapter, Mrs. Bowie has tried to present a general and compact picture while maintaining the important concepts of the anthropology of rituals. She has also provided definitions of the key concepts of Turner's thought.

In the ninth chapter titled Pilgrimage, Mrs. Bowie has presented a series of approaches and classifications of pilgrimage. He also pointed out that Turner is the owner of theory in this field and presented a general picture of Turner's work process.

3 Turner, Victor, "Myth and Symbol", translated and summarized by Hassanzadeh, Ali Reza, Kitab Mah Honar, Azar Vedi 81, No. 51 and 52, pp. 70 to 77.

In this translation Scattered parts of Turner's book called Jungle of Symbols, which are related to myth, have been collected. 4. Hosseini, Mohsen, "Parts of the motivation of socialization of theater beyond the social sphere", Tashrah Magazine, Khordad Vetir 87, No. 105 and 106, pp. 20-27.

5 Jerry, D. Moore, The Life and Thought of the Greats of Anthropology, translated by Hashim Aghabig Puri and Jaafar Ahmadi, Sociology Publishing House.

This book introduces 25 theorists of anthropology and its most important feature is the introduction and analysis of each theory in the context of the family, scientific and social life of each theorist. This book emphasizes the study of symbols from Turner's point of view.

6 and 7 Izadi Jiran, Asghar, "Executive turn in anthropology: the legacy of Victor Turner", Iranian Sociological Scientific Association, Tehran: University of Tehran, 23 November 2011.

Izadi Jiran, Asghar, "Sensory structures and functions in Ta'ziye Hor in Mavlan village (Qara Dagh region)", scientific conference of epic research in Ashurai arts, Tehran: Iranian Artists' House, 23 Azar 2011.