Sakralitat Und Mobliliat Im Kaukasus Und in Sudosteuropa

Different concepts and practices of sacrality seen in a transregional comparison, exemplified by the Caucasus and Southeast Europe, are the main topics of the book at hand. Both regions exhibit a strongly ethno-denominational plurality that has been characterized by a re-sacralization in the post-socialist period. Sacralization is considered by the authors to be a process of ascription and presentation in the context of mobility, where sacred places and spiritual practices in pluri-ethnic societies constitute modern categories and a dynamic meeting space. Pagan or postmodern pilgrimages, Christian and Islamic pilgrimage, the transfer of sacred relics, mobile and urban veneration of saints and the sacralization of landscape through traveling all form - according to the results of the authors' research - essential resources for the construction of local and regional identities in Southeast Europe and the Caucasus. Raising no claims to completeness, these discourse-oriented and ethnographic contributions provide an insight into the phenomena of sacralization processes and show the significance that a sacrally motivated mobility can have within the post-socialist societies of Southeast Europe and the Caucasus, as well as which actors influence and mobilize 'large-scale' and 'small-scale' sacred spaces in these 'transit zones'. Despite political upheavals, 'small-scale' sacred spaces seem to maintain a certain continuity. The present book has emerged from a lecture series at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (2014-2015) and has been complemented by the results of a research project (2013-2016) sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation about the transformation of sacred spaces in the Caucasus.