Religion meets Commemoration - Pilgrimages & Tours to Battlefields of the Western Front

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Author(s)
Clarke, Peter
Eastgate, Anne
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2009
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This paper argues that battlefield tours have strong religious overtones covering respect for ancestors, remembrance, sacrifice and responsibility that features non-spiritual philosophies. This study incorporates views of 23 respondents during a Western Front battlefields tour. The Life Course Perspectives (Hutchinson, 2003) provides a framework to build an understanding of commemoration and religious interactions. The discussion relating to icons, memorials and cemeteries suggests that tours of this nature accrue attributes of a pilgrimage. A selected pr飩s of religion precedes the proposition that Western Front battlefield ...
View more >This paper argues that battlefield tours have strong religious overtones covering respect for ancestors, remembrance, sacrifice and responsibility that features non-spiritual philosophies. This study incorporates views of 23 respondents during a Western Front battlefields tour. The Life Course Perspectives (Hutchinson, 2003) provides a framework to build an understanding of commemoration and religious interactions. The discussion relating to icons, memorials and cemeteries suggests that tours of this nature accrue attributes of a pilgrimage. A selected pr飩s of religion precedes the proposition that Western Front battlefield commemoration meets religion. Tour members believe the Somme region, memorials and cemeteries to be sacred, symbolic places that hold secular meaning, attracts reverence and are a part of their life.
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View more >This paper argues that battlefield tours have strong religious overtones covering respect for ancestors, remembrance, sacrifice and responsibility that features non-spiritual philosophies. This study incorporates views of 23 respondents during a Western Front battlefields tour. The Life Course Perspectives (Hutchinson, 2003) provides a framework to build an understanding of commemoration and religious interactions. The discussion relating to icons, memorials and cemeteries suggests that tours of this nature accrue attributes of a pilgrimage. A selected pr飩s of religion precedes the proposition that Western Front battlefield commemoration meets religion. Tour members believe the Somme region, memorials and cemeteries to be sacred, symbolic places that hold secular meaning, attracts reverence and are a part of their life.
View less >
Conference Title
ANZMAC Conference 2009
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Copyright Statement
© 2009 ANZMAC. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the conference website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Consumer-Oriented Product or Service Development