Call for paper
(P056) Cyberpilgrimage: theory, practice and future
Deadline: 09/01/2014
The Future with/of Anthropologies
The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA) Conference & IUAES
Inter-Congress 2014
Chiba City, Tokyo. 15th-18th May 2014.
Today cyberspace is a reason for concern in most religious communities. In
the last few years, both orthodox and less orthodox religious groups and
communities seem to have acknowledged that the development of the Internet
cannot be ignored, trivialized or kept away from religious communities. The
discussion has therefore moved to more general questions on the degree to
which true believers are allowed to get involved with the Internet and cyber
space and on how to make it more relevant to their religious beliefs and
duties.
In this panel we tackle with new phenomenon of cyberpilgrimage (pilgrimage
mediated by digital media) in contemporary religions. The field of
cyberpilgrimage, primarily from the viewpoint of religious and theology
studies, is new topic in digital anthropology and anthropological pilgrimage
studies. However, the new phenomenon seems to be a key to deconstruct and
rethink former concept of pilgrimage in various reasons; lack of physical
journey, general availability of access to sacred area and so on. Thus, the
presenters in this panel explore dynamics of cyberpilgrimage in terms of
pilgrimage studies.
We are interested in receiving proposals which present new and unpublished
researches on topics such as (but not limited to):
-What can the study of cyberpilgrimage add to the previous theories
regarding the anthropology of pilgrimage?
-What can cyberpilgrimage entail, to survey the input to-date of
contemporary scholars to the anthropological study of religion?
- Authenticity of computer-based cyberpilgrimage experience as a real
pilgrimage.
- Can computer-mediated experiences of cyberpilgrimage help pilgrims to
attain higher spiritual levels?
- What are the benefits of cyberpilgrimage to the pilgrims?
-What is the influence of cyberpilgrimage on the religion, spirituality and
religious cyberspace?
-Should faith be considered as a prerequisite for cyberpilgrimage?
-Can cyberpilgrimage help people, especially geographically dispersed ones,
to nurture their connections to the communal landscapes or their traditions?
-Should cyberpilgrimage be viewed in a complimentary relationship to
terrestrial pilgrimage or be considered as an introduction to it?
-Can cyberpilgrimage play a role as a mediated pathway to link the physical
and metaphysical?
-Potential relationships between cyberpilgrimage and illusion.
-Does cyberpilgrimage constitutes a meaningful and authentic contemporary
manifestations of the pilgrimage tradition?
- What are the religious and political benefits of cyberpilgrimage for those
who run and host such digital pilgrimage programes?
- Cyberpilgrimage and diaspora?
All submission should be made oline on the official websire of conference
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/iuaes/iuaes2014/panels.php5?PanelID=2843
For further information and enquiries, please contact conveners
Dr. P. Khosronejad ([log in to unmask])
Dr. K. Kuroda ([log in to unmask])
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