Christoph Bergmann - Böcker

This book focuses on the ritualized forms of mobility that constitute phenomena of pilgrimage in South Asia and establishes a new analytical framework for the study of ritual journeys.The book advances the conceptual scope of ‘classical’ Pilgrimage Studies and provides empirical depth through individual case studies. A key concern is the strategies of ritualization through which actors create, assemble and (re-)articulate certain modes of displacement to differentiate themselves from everyday forms of locomotion. Ritual journeys are understood as being both productive of and produced by South Asia’s socio-economically uneven, politically charged and culturally variegated landscapes. From various disciplinary angles, each chapter explores how spaces and movements in space are continually created, contested and transformed through ritual journeys. By focusing on this co-production of space and mobility, the book delivers a conceptually driven and empirically grounded engagement with the diverse and changing traditions of ritual journeying in South Asia. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the book is a must-have reference work for academics interested in South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology and Human Geography with a focus on pilgrimage and the socio-spatial ideas and practices of ritualized movements in South Asia.

This book focuses on the ritualized forms of mobility that constitute phenomena of pilgrimage in South Asia and establishes a new analytical framework for the study of ritual journeys.The book advances the conceptual scope of ‘classical’ Pilgrimage Studies and provides empirical depth through individual case studies. A key concern is the strategies of ritualization through which actors create, assemble and (re-)articulate certain modes of displacement to differentiate themselves from everyday forms of locomotion. Ritual journeys are understood as being both productive of and produced by South Asia’s socio-economically uneven, politically charged and culturally variegated landscapes. From various disciplinary angles, each chapter explores how spaces and movements in space are continually created, contested and transformed through ritual journeys. By focusing on this co-production of space and mobility, the book delivers a conceptually driven and empirically grounded engagement with the diverse and changing traditions of ritual journeying in South Asia. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the book is a must-have reference work for academics interested in South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology and Human Geography with a focus on pilgrimage and the socio-spatial ideas and practices of ritualized movements in South Asia.

Drawing fromextensive archival work and long-term ethnographic research, this book focuseson the so-called Bhotiyas, former trans-Himalayan traders and a Scheduled Tribeof India who reside in several high valleys of the Kumaon Himalaya. The area islocated in the border triangle between India, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR,People’s Republic of China), and Nepal, where contestations over politicalboundaries have created multiple challenges as well as opportunities for localmountain communities.Basedon an analytical framework that is grounded in and contributes to recentadvances in the field of border studies, the author explores how theBhotiyas have used their agency todevelopa flourishing trans-Himalayan trade under British colonial influence; to assertan identity and win legal recognition as a tribal community in the politicalsetup of independent India; and to innovate their pastoral mobility in thecontext of ongoing state and market reforms. By examining theBhotiyas’ trade, identity and mobilitythisbook showshow and why the Himalayan border region has evolved as an agentive siteof political action for a variety of different actors.