Lo N a t io n a l U n iv e r s it y o f I r e l a n d M a y n o o t h IN D efence o f the R e a l m : Mobility, Modernity and Community on the Camino de Santiago Keith Egan A pril 2007 A Dissertation subm itted to the D epartm ent of A nthropology in FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF PH. D. Supervisor: Professor Law rence Taylor Table of C ontents I ntroduction “I came here for the magic” ......................................................................... 1 C h a p t e r o n e From communitas to ‘Caminotas’ ............................................................ 52 C h a p t e r t w o Rites of massage ...................................................................................... 90 C hapter three Into the West.................................................................................................. 129 C h a p t e r f o u r Changes and other improvements ............. 165 C hapter five Negotiating Old Territories ................................................................... 192 Ch apter six Economies of Salvation ......................................................................... 226 C o n c l u s io n Mobility, Modernity, Community ............................................................ 265 Bibliography ...................................................................................... 287 T a b l e o f F ig u r e s Figure 1 The Refuge at Manjarin........................................ 3 Figure 2 Map of the French Way of the Camino de Santiago........................................10 Figure 3 Map showing alternative routes to Santiago.....................................................11 Figure 4 Certificate of Completion (Compostela).........................................................19 Figure 5 Official Pilgrim Passport of the Irish Society of the Friends of St, James 21 Figure 6 A pilgrim displays her collection of sellos in Santiago................................... 22 Figure 7 Official Pilgrim Passport of Les Amis du Chemin de Saint-Jacques.............. 24 Figure 8 Map of minor medieval routes to Santiago..................................................... 28 Figure 9 The author atop the Cruz de Ferro................................................................... 29 Figure 10 Pilgrims queuing outside refuge at Palais de Rey............................,.............44 Figure 11 Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog (ca. 1818) C. D. Friedrich..............................47 Figure 12 The pilgrim of San Roque, Galicia................................................................. 49 Figure 13 The entrance through the Porte de Saint-Jacques............................................59 Figure 14 A typical blister for pilgrims...........................................................................69 Figure 15 Monument outside Estella to a Canadian pilgrim.................................... ......70 Figure 16 Shelf for discarded pilgrim items in Roncesvalles..........................................76 Figure 17 Postcard displaying the material culture of the conxuro de quiemada 119 Figure 18 The town of Hontanas........................................ 148 Figure 19 A pilgrim desperately approaches a water reservoir in search of water 151 Figure 20 The Camino follows the road into León........................................................168 Figure 21 Monument to a German cycling pilgrim outside El Acebo...........................174 Figure 22 The accoutrements of the modem pilgrim...........................................,........208 Figure 23 Multiple Signs indicating the French Way................................................... 212 Figure 24 Sunrise over Galicia.................. 229 Figure 25 Half-kilometre markers in Galicia................................................................ 232 Figure 26 Stopping for a cold beverage halfway up O Cebrero Mountain .......... 241 Figure 27 Statue commemorating Pope John Paul II.................................................... 242 Figure 28 Part of the path in Galicia.............................................................................243 Figure 29 Nighthawlcs (1942) Edward Hopper......................................................... ....272 Figure 30 León McDonalds offers a free dessert in solidarity with pilgrims ....... 278 Figure 31 Tourists line up to enter the Puerta de Perdón.............................................. 281 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my own work and that it has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at any other university. Keith Egan Acknowledgements In a project such as this, the collaborative efforts of so many people are required to bring everything to a conclusion. My supervisor, Professor Lawrence Taylor could not have been more of a support in his patient corrections of my difficult prose, giving large amounts of time and encouragement for which I owe him much. My thanks to Dr. Jamie Saris, Dr. Steve Colman, Dr. Seamas O Siochain for comments and suggestions that greatly improved the quality of my thinking at important times during the project. I have been so fortunate in the support I have received from the entire department of anthropology. Deirdre as always has been super, and both she and Jacqui have helped me in many ways as I have negotiated the tricky business of working and studying over the last years. My thanks to Dr. Cormac Sheehan, who stepped in at a vulnerable moment, with kind advice that made it all seem possible again. I want to thank the reading group, my wife Mary, Ruth McLoughlin, Fiona Larkan, Marion Mullin, Michael Roberts, and my partner in crime, Fiona Murphy, all of whom were constant in their affirmation of a project on wandering that struggled not to lose its way. You all have been excellent companions, and I am so grateful for you. To the pilgrims who shared their pilgrimages, their stories and their lives so that I could make sense of the strange business of walking for weeks in wild places, I cannot thank you enough. Thanks to Andrej for making such an effort to share in my difficult task. Thanks to Robert, for the black and white photos that appear in this thesis. To Steve Downes who finished before me and was another sympathetic ear, and to my friend Mark Whale who has helped me in many ways to stay sane in the last two years, thank you both. My appreciation and gratitude is with Amaud Tagnachie, who has talked through many issues with me, walked on pilgrimage and lent me his ear through long difficult days. I am grateful too to the anthropology postgraduates who were always interested as I tried to reconceive my project in conversations in the pub and in the department. I thank my family for helping me in the formative years of my education and keeping their faith in me strong as I ran to the finish line. To my wonderful wife, the love of my life, Mary, we made it, gracefully. Thank you for our life together, may we find ever more to love about it as this phase comes to a close, I will try to thank you the most, now that we finally have the time. And little Saoirse, who has not understood why her dad had to work so hard, I’ll make it up. To anyone who 1 have neglected to mention, the final moments of this arduous undertaking makes people do silly things. No offence is meant and you know who you are. Thank you too. All other mistakes are my own as well. Dedication To Mary and Saoirse Abstract This study adopts phenomenological, semiotic and symbolic approaches to the study of pilgrimage, following pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago across Spain. My starting point has been to examine pilgrims’ construction of a different place, time and experiencing self, while on pilgrimage in the company of others engaging in similar projects of existential re-invigoration. This study asks whether authentic experience can be possible in a world characterised by alienation and fragmentation and what role religion can play in this instance. By combining classic notions of gift, with contemporary ideas of narrative, community and authenticity, this study tries to highlight the ways in which selves are projects under continual renewal, where the existential ground of meaning and experience is rediscovered through idioms of physical distress and comprehended through the pilgrimage space as a context for therapeutic action. The basic understanding of pilgrimage that this study employs then is that the pilgrimage site is a privileged arena for the investigation of existential power and for the exploration of more central discursive processes. These processes constitute larger contexts of meaning and belonging through the pilgrimage space for its transient inhabitants, the pilgrims. In a world and a time where belief might appear to have waned, this study asks what role suffering within a religious paradigm has for making sense of life. Notions of self and other are scrutinised in the face of real attempts by pilgrims to find people to help establish the meaningful grounds of life-projects capable of retaining momentum and direction. In the intersections between mobility, modernity and community then, are the interstices where pilgrims remake the grounds of experience, coping with loss, grief and regret. The pilgrimage is an arena for experimentation that becomes increasingly available as more institutional formations of sacred travel become backgrounded, freeing pilgrims to achieve crucial personal goals. As for this myth [of Sisyphus], one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll