Anthropologist on Pilgrimage. On the Problem of Understanding and Interpreting Experience (Summary)

Abstract

Razumijevanje (subjektivnih) iskustava susreta s drugom realnošću, sa svetim, i percepcije toga svetog, podrazumijeva ne samo prihvaćanje vjerovanja da sveto postoji samo po sebi i da je u kontekstu hodočasničkog fenomena locirano u mjestu već i vlastito iskustvo takva vjerovanja. Premda se problemi istraživanja i razumijevanja izravnih iskustava (ne samo hodočasničkih), mehanizama kojima su izazvani te njihova praktičnog učinka u pravilu tumače metodološkim ili interpretacijskim ograničenjima, u radu se nekolicinom pojedinosti iz antropologije hodočašaća nudi stav kako problematičnost kulturnoantropološkog bavljenja iskustvima prije leži u intradisciplinarnom vrednovanju iskustava kulturnih antropologa samih.Understanding (subjective) experience of encountering another reality, the sacred, and the perception of the sacred, implies not only the acceptance of the belief that the sacred exists in itself and that it is located in place, in the context of the pilgrimage phenomenon, but also one’s own experience of the belief. The problems of research and understanding of direct experiences (not only pilgrimage experiences), the mechanisms that trigger them and their practical effect, are usually interpreted through methodological or interpretational limits. On the example of several elements of the anthropology of pilgrimage, the introductory paper offers a perspective that the issue of cultural-anthropological dealings with experience lies primarily in the interdisciplinary valuing of experiences of cultural anthropologists themselves. The thesis is further discussed by several colleagues whose research is focused on religious themes