Christian pilgrimage in Jerusalem: Uncertainty, event, and the framing of social order

Abstract

This analytical ethnography provides the empirical and conceptual foundations for a theory of the emergence of social order through performative practice under conditions of uncertainty. Theoretically, the goal is to explicate ways in which uncertainty is integral to emergent social practice in order to show how uncertainty opens opportunities for social change. Change can be defined as an outcome, generated through practice, where something different comes into existence which was not there before. Empirically, my ethnographic focus is on performative practice in Christian pilgrimage in Jerusalem. I analyze how conditions of uncertainty shape the processes through which four different types of performative events are enacted. In a remote stretch of a valley outside Jerusalem, the battle of David and Goliath is enacted by a group of Evangelical Protestants. An Anglican group walks in the footsteps of Christ from the Mount of Olives, through the Old City of Jerusalem, and into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Orthodox Christians perform the annual ritual of the Easter Miracle of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Jubilee Year 2000 is the occasion for the pilgrimage of the late Pope John Paul II and his Catholic followers. At the core of this performative practice is the relationship between myth and place. The Holy Land signifies awareness that the events described in the Bible have actual physical locations which exist and can be seen. Place constitutes a fusion of a physical location of a specific biblical event with the topography that resembles the narration of this event in the Bible. The connection between myth and place is forged through performance. This requires group leaders who initiate the performance, using a process of meta-framing through which each specific group is separated from others in the background, as explicated by Gregory Bateson. The separation focuses the group's attention on the performance and encircles the group within a frame. The frame is a message which communicates to the pilgrims how they are to interpret what they are experiencing. As each performance is set in motion, social order emerges as the outcome of the interplay of these factors. The choice of the narrative, the place, the performative style, and the corresponding forms that shape the social relations during the performance reflect the different cultural perspectives of these groups.

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