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ABSTRACT
One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political dynamics of enchantment by examining its stages in depth. We use the term ‘enchanted moments of place’ to challenge the use of the term ‘enchanted’ as a static historical or historiographical designation. It takes long-term ethnographic work at a recently emerging pilgrimage site in the north of Israel/Palestine commonly known as the Shrine of Mariam Bawardy, as an empirical point of departure to explore the dynamics of enchantment. We suggest an anthropological theory of enchantment that embraces an analysis of the ways time/place intermingles religious and everyday grassroots political dynamics. This perspective sheds light on the creation of sacred place during moments of renewed creativity, the reformulation of indigenous identities, the process of reinvented rituals, and the restoration and staging of material objects and place. Uncovering these moments can clarify the ways sacred places are politically voiced and spatialized by pilgrims, and appropriated by visitors and religious agents. Our analysis shows that these ‘enchanted moments’, places are more fragile and susceptible to changes caused by macro- and micro- political shifts. Enchanted moments are more sensitive to local decision-making processes, creativity, contingencies and rivalry among native agents and their aspirations for place and territoriality.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Assad Daoud and his family. We also thank Esther Singer for her carful language editing and comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Similar to other aspects of her life, her parents’ background is also shrouded in myth and prone to interpretation.
2 The Discalced Carmelites are the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. This Catholic mendicant order has roots in the eremitic tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.
3 The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Melkite Church is related to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. It is mainly centered in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
4 Die zunehmende Intellektualisierung und Rationalisierung bedeutet also nicht eine zunehmende allgemeine Kenntnis der Lebensbedingungen, unter denen man steht. Sondern sie bedeutet etwas anderes: das Wissen davon oder den Glauben daran: daß man, wenn man nur wollte, es jederzeit erfahren könnte, daß es also prinzipiell keine gegheimnisvollen unberechenbaren Mächte gebe, die da hineinspielen, daß man vielmehr alle Dinge – im Prinzip – durch Berechnen beherrschen könne. Das aber bedeutet: die Entzauberung der Welt. Nicht mehr, wie der Wilde, für den es solche Mächte gab, muss man zu magischen Mitteln greifen, um die Geister zu beherrschen oder zu erbitten. Sondern technische Mittel und Berechnung leisten das. Dies vor allem bedeutet die Intellektualisierung als solche … Weber: Wissenschaft als Beruf, München 1919.
6 Two miracles paved the way for Bawardy's beatification in December 1929. The first was saving the life of a gravely ill child in Italy. Friends of the toddler's parents prayed for his recovery after having a spiritual encounter with Mariam during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Hasson Citation2015). The second episode took place in Shfar’am, a small town near Ibbelin. A very sick three-year old was cured several months after a picture of Mariam was hung in her family's home. After her aunt prayed to Mariam on Easter in 1929, the child, who had previously never taken a step in her life, suddenly got up and jubilantly told her grandmother: ‘Look, my feet are walking!!’ The final miracle that paved the way for Bawardy's canonization was the healing of a Sicilian infant on 18 April 2009. Rushed to the hospital in critical condition, the baby was diagnosed with heart failure and the medical staff lost all hope of resuscitating the patient. At this point, a relic of Mariam Bawardy was brought before the dying child, who was instantly healed. On 6 December 2014, Pope Francis issued a decree confirming this miracle, which was brought to his attention by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Citation2015).
7 The Custody of the Holy Land is a custodian priory of the Order of Friars Minor in Jerusalem, founded as the Province of the Holy Land in 1217 by Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1342, the Franciscans were declared by two papal bulls to be the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church. The Custody's headquarters are located in the Monastery of Saint Savior, a 16th-century Franciscan monastery near the New Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
8 http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2010/07/blessed-mariam-baouardy-little-arab-and.html, last accessed January 19, 2016. This is the Mariam Bawardy page on an official website of Catholic ‘mystics and visionaries’.