T.A.MA · 'Sharing without Solidarity: Politics, Heritage and Pilgrimage in a Divided European Society'
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-09-01 → 2020-08-31
- EU contribution
- €221,447
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
'Sharing without Solidarity: Politics, Heritage and Pilgrimage in a Divided European Society'
Drawing on work on religion, pilgrimage, heritage and conflict, the project asked how religion, politics and cultural heritage intersect in divided societies. It explored this question by examining the restoration of the Christian Orthodox Apostolos Andreas monastery in Turkish-occupied Karpas (Cyprus) and the revival of associated pilgrimages to the site. Cyprus has been geographically and ethnically divided ever since the 1974 Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation of the northern part of the island. In 2003, the opening of the checkpoints allowed people to cross and re-visit the places they had been forced to abandon. In this framework, formerly established Greek Cypriot pilgrimages to the monastery of Apostolos Andreas revived. The project had two main scientific objectives; to explore (a) What happens to a pilgrimage in the context of shifting and contested negotiations over access? In exploring this question, the project asked how the ongoing division affects different groups of pilgrims; their motives, their experiences of the pilgrimage and the meanings they ascribe to the pilgrimage journey and its destination, as well as the ways in which the latter two are represented in collective memory. (b) What happens to pilgrimage when its destination is discussed as heritage, the restoration of which is undertaken in conditions of ongoing division, via inter-communal attempts supported by international secular institutions (e.g. the United Nations)? How do the latter’s views of the conflict affect the restoration and what is their role in the management of conflict and the unfolding of inter and intra-communal relations? What discourses do they and other local ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ institutions articulate in relation to the pilgrimage, the monastery and its restoration, and how are these constructed in the context of the Cyprus Issue? How and to what extent do inter-communal restoration attempts help foster reunification?
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The proposed project will explore how religion, politics and heritage intersect in a deeply divided European society, by examining the Christian-Orthodox shrine of Apostle Andreas, in the Turkish-occupied Karpass peninsula (Cyprus). The shrine is mainly visited by Greek-Cypriots and to a lesser degree by Turkish-Cypriots, and it is currently being restored by both communities with the involvement of the EU. Using semi-structured interviews with pilgrims and officials involved in the shrine’s management and restoration, participant observation, and visual and archival research material, the study will look at (a) the attempts to restore the shrine, and (b) the revival of pilgrimages in conditions of ongoing division. The initial aim is to uncover symbolic, cultural, ethnic and political associations ascribed to the shrine and the pilgrimage by local and international actors. Examination of the shrine is also a powerful means through which to access past and present aspects of intercommunal relations. One original dimension of the proposed project is that it is one of the very few to study the institution of pilgrimage as a whole, looking at pilgrims, organizers, political actors and international organizations. This all-round perspective is appropriate to an analytical approach that, unusually, does not take religious motivation to be the default motivation for participation in the workings of a shrine, and it is necessary as a means of seeing whether and how different stakeholders articulate with each other in a situation of ongoing tension. This model of ‘articulation’ is intended to transcend simple dichotomies evident in the anthropological literature between ‘communitas’ (fellowship) and contestation in the operation of a shrine. Focusing on a pilgrimage site that is located in a divided country that is a member of the EU, the project has the potential to inform EU policy on heritage and conflict resolution, while benefiting the communities under study.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union