Ryan McGovern Outside Reading 1

Transplanting Pilgrimage Traditions in the Americas 5-1-09

So for my annotated bibliography project, I read an article called "Transplanting Pilgrimage Traditions in the Americas". It was written by Carolyn V. Prorok, and was published in the Geographical Review. It is an article about when peoples are forced to move from one place to another, and what they do to transplant their pilgrimage traditions to a new area. This is a very relevant topic because many people are forced to move from certain areas for many different reasons. Racism, war, poverty, drought, there are many reasons why people must move. But these people want to take their pilgrimage traditions with them. But people create new spiritual anchors in their new homes, and they use those as inspiration for their new pilgrimages. Think about the last time you moved, and maybe you had to find a new church or something like that. People can find new spiritual anchors anywhere in the world. But I imagine this would be difficult for people with a set holy land, like the Jews and Muslims. Because of this, that is why that region is so volatile. There is really no way to transplant their traditions anywhere else, because their scripture says that that is where their holy land is. So that is why Christianity is so universal, because there is no real set holy land, it goes wherever you go.