Jenny Parker: Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture I

While beginning to read this book I found it really interesting how pilgrimage and tribal differentiated; "In the pilgrimages of the historical religions the moral unit is the individual, and his goal is salvation or release from the sins and evils of the structural world, in preparation for participation in an afterlife of pure bliss" (p. 8). However, "in tribal initiation the moral unit is the social group or category, and the goal is the attainment of a new sociocultural status and state"  (p.8-9). It is interesting how in pilgrimage, pilgrims are leaving society or escaping the village. They are getting away from the normal culture which they have been living in. Whereas with tribal initiation they are seeking "a deeper commitment to the structural life of his local community" (p. 9). Pilgrims and tribes are being contrasted, but the Turners talk about how pilgrims too go through an initiation: "a pilgrim is an initiand, entering into a new, deeper level of existence than he has known in his accustomed milieu" (p. 8). I like how the book compares and contrasts the two.