Pilgrimage to sacred sites in the Eastern Free State
| dc.contributor.advisor | Nel, P. J. | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Post, P. | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Van Beek, W. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Du Plooy, Shirley | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-01-25T08:43:34Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-01-25T08:43:34Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-01 | |
| dc.description.abstract | English: There are many pilgrimages and revered forms of travel in South Africa. However, no systematic anthropological studies have been conducted into these journeys. Filling this void, this is a multisite ethnographic study of pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State province. Following a qualitative methodology, the purpose of this combination inductive-deductive study was to explore the pilgrimage phenomenon, describe pilgrimages to Mantsopa, Mautse and Motouleng, and explain the reasons pilgrims have for undertaking pilgrimages. Situated in the Mohokare (Caledon) River Valley, the sacred sites of the eastern Free State attract visitation from a range of site users. Predominantly Sesotho-speaking, but also coming from across the country and neighbouring countries as well, groups of mostly Apostolic, ZCC, Roman Catholic and more recently Protestant congregants or lone journeyers travel to the sites, mainly over weekends. Seeking to commune with the divine, pilgrims come to report and make prayer requests. Important motives for their pilgrimages are to search for and solidify ancestor connections, and to secure blessings. Further incentives comprise complying with the commission and instruction to visit the sites, and the healing implications of these pilgrimages. Some visitors to the sites make the trip but once, whereas other site users periodically return a number of times a year and yet others reside permanently at the sites for years. The beautifully vibrant, colourful and complex pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State call for a rethinking and broadening of the pilgrimage lens. The mainly Anglophone and Western conception of classic pilgrimage is too narrow to accommodate the range and complexity of motivations, traditions, people and behaviours associated with pilgrimages to the sacred sites of the eastern Free State. This heterogeneity further leads to jostling and vying for favour, clientele, narrative dominion and overall legitimisation among the pilgrim communities. Being journeys and places of substance required an acknowledgement of the significant role that the immaterial plays in all that is pilgrimage. This meant that culturalistic and hylomorphic models proved inadequate in capturing a more complete pilgrimage story. Instead, within a relational epistemology and ontology, the entwinement, enmeshment, entanglement and entrapment of the material and immaterial, the animate and inanimate, the present and absent things, bring the sacred sites, the pilgrimages and the pilgrims into existence. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | Afrikaans: Daar is vele pelgrimstogte en eerbiedige vorme van reis in Suid-Afrika, alhoewel daar geen stelselmatige antropologiese studie van hierdie reise is nie. Hierdie etnografiese studie van pelgrimstogte na veelvuldige gewyde plekke in die Oos-Vrystaat vul daardie gaping. Die doel van die gekombineerde induktiewe-deduktiewe studie was om die verskynsel van pelgrimstogte te ondersoek, die pelgrimstogte na Mantsopa, Mautse en Motouleng te beskryf, en die redes vir die pelgrimstogte te verduidelik deur middel van kwalitatiewe metodologie. Die gewyde plekke van die Oos-Vrystaat, geleë in die Mohokare (Caledon) Riviervallei, lok besoek van ʼn verskeidenheid van pelgrims. Pelgrims is oorwegend Sesotho-sprekend, maar kom van dwarsoor die land en naburige lande en sluit in groepe van grotendeels Apostoliese, ZCC en Rooms-Katolieke affiliasie, terwyl Protestantse gemeentelede en alleenreisigers meer onlangs na die gewyde plekke begin reis het, meestal tydens naweke. Ten einde sielsgemeenskap te hê met die goddelike kom pelgrims om gebedsversoeke te doen. Hulle soeke na en versterking van voorvaderlike verbintenisse en die verkryging van seëninge is belangrike motiewe. Die volvoering van opdragte en sendings na hierdie plekke en die genesingskrag daarvan dien ook as verreikende insentiewe. Sommige pelgrims onderneem die reis slegs een keer, ander pelgrims pak die reis van tyd tot tyd ʼn aantal keer per jaar aan, terwyl ʼn kategorie van permanente pelgrims se togte hulle etlike jare by die plekke kan hou. Die pragtige, lewendige, kleurryke en komplekse pelgrimstogte na die gewyde plekke van die Oos-Vrystaat vereis ʼn herbesinning en verruiming van die pelgrimstoglens. Die hoofsaaklik Engelssprekende en Westerse klassieke beskouing van pelgrimstogte is té beperk om die wye verskeidenheid en kompleksiteite van motiverings, tradisies, mense en gedrag te akkommodeer. Hierdie heterogeniteit lei voorts tot ʼn worsteling en wedywering vir gunste, klandisie, narratiewe heerskappy en algehele regverdiging onder die pelgrims-gemeenskappe. Synde substantiewe reise en plekke, het vereis dat die insiggewende rol wat deur die immateriële in pelgrimstogte gespeel word, erkenning geniet. Dit beteken dat die kulturalistiese en hilomorfiese modelle ontoereikend was om die meer volledige pelgrimsstorie te ondervang. Die verweefdheid, verwikkeldheid en verstrikking van die materiële en die immateriële, die lewende en die lewelose, die teenwoordige en die afwesige binne ʼn verbandhoudende epistemologie en ontologie het die gewyde plekke, pelgrimstogte en die pelgrims volwaardig in die lewe geroep. | af |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/5409 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Pilgrimage | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Sacred sites | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Mohokare (Caledon) River Valley | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Substansiveness | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Animacy | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Relational epistemology and ontology | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Meshworks | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Entanglements | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Presencing absence | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Pilgrimage studies | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Zion Christian Church (ZCC) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Nazareth Baptist Church (NBC) | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Thesis (Ph.D. (Centre for Africa Studies))--University of the Free State, 2016 | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Pilgrimage to sacred sites in the Eastern Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |