Performing Gestures at Protests and Other Sites

Performative manifestation of protests in recent times in India and elsewhere in the world are identified by gestures, which often emerge from protest sites, circulate in the public domain, and are seen as democratic articulations and dissent, particularly when right-wing state powers are trying to curb freedom of expression and subvert democratic practices. This chapter argues that the power of the gestural idiom surpasses the marginality of its location and has resulted in a large corpus of scholarly works focusing on theatrical gestures as protest dramaturgies and transgressive and agentive bodily idioms. In contrast to the growing right-wing rhetoric and cultural mobilization in spaces of mass congregations, which adopts stereotypical gestural rhetoric, these gestures of dissent can be read as self-critical, coming from theatrical practices, particularly those elaborated by Bertolt Brecht, influential in Europe and the postcolonial world. In addition, the chapter attempts to initiate a dialogue between theater and performance studies and studies in politics as common sites of performing dissent. The chapter further argues that, despite the difference in methodological approaches, there are potentials of critical dialogues across the disciplines. Case studies from contemporary India, relevant to the academic debates, describe and analyze religious festival and pilgrimage, instrumentalized for political electoral gains and a protest performance in civil society on the eve of the 2019 elections.

Bayram sofra in Belgrade - a contribution to the interreligious dialogue and visibility of minority religious communities

The paper focuses on the celebration of Ramadan Bayram and the organization of the feast Bayram sofra in Belgrade. The Islamic Community of Serbia and the Cultural Society of Muslims in Serbia - ?Gajret?, have been organizing the Bayram sofra since 2009 as the celebration which symbolizes the end of the Ramadan fasting. The celebration is held in the public space in front of the Bajrakli mosque in Belgrade. Since it is organized as part of the celebration of Ramadan Bayram, its meaning can be observed and analyzed in a religious, but also in a broader social context. In this paper, we observe the Bayram sofra in the context of learning about Islam, as the minority religious community, but also as an event which initiates interreligious dialogue at several different levels. Thus, we focus on identifying the elements of dialogue between the Islamic community and other religious communities, as well as the citizens of Belgrade, relying on some theoretical concepts of interreligious dialogue. The ethnographic research of the Bayram sofra started in 2020 with the main focus on the social and religious elements of Ramadan Bayram and the role of this religious festival in enhancing the visibility of this religious minority in Serbia.

SOCIAL TOURISM: ESSENCE, STRUCTURE AND INNOVATIVE DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

The article deals with the scientific approaches to understanding and research of social tourism and substantiates the theoretical and methodological principles and practical areas of this type of economic activity innovative development. The theoretical developments of authors who studied social tourism in relation to the definition of this concept, its structure are analyzed. Topical issues are the coordination of the conceptual and terminological apparatus, clarification of methodological approaches to understanding the nature and structure of social tourism. The practical problems of the organization of social tourism, in particular, the obstacles that arise on the way of innovative development of this type of economic activity are considered. Given the identified barriers that significantly limit the active development of social tourism, ensuring the availability of recreation for low-income groups requires the development and implementation of a number of specific measures, which include defining the state social policy in tourism, development and adoption of legislation and regulations that would regulate relations in the field of social tourism, the creation of social infrastructure in tourism, providing systems and mechanisms to support certain social segments of the population on opportunities to receive social tourism services, training skilled workers to work in the social tourism system. Three blocks of social tourism types by organizational features are singled out. The specifics of socialization of social types of tourism (sports-health, medical-health, sports, inclusive, ecological, rural, ethnic, religious, festival) are investigated and innovative directions of their development are substantiated. It is concluded that the whole set of interconnected organizational forms of innovation within the region forms a tourism system, the main purpose of which in modern conditions should be to ensure regional and national tourism competitiveness, taking into account the influence of social factors. Social tourism has an important role given the specifics of the current stage of social development, as well as its central place in the structure of the social doctrine of tourism.

“Caminhada com Maria” virtual: uma festa popular em diálogo com o digital

A Igreja Católica sempre procurou estar conectada com a mídia e a pandemia de COVID-19 estreitou ainda mais os laços da instituição religiosa com as mídias sociais. Neste cenário, também as festas populares precisaram reconfigurar suas práticas para atender a necessidade do isolamento, o que incluiu a presença ainda mais forte destas celebrações no ambiente digital. Nesse contexto, o objeto da presente pesquisa é a “Caminhada com Maria”, tradicional procissão católica realizada em Fortaleza, ocorrida em formato virtual em 2020. A metodologia utilizada é a netnografia, por meio da análise dos comentários dos fiéis durante a transmissão ao vivo da festa religiosa. Foi possível observar como os participantes se apropriaram destes espaços para manifestar práticas devocionais e votivas, o que demonstra as oportunidades de comunicação que a religiosidade tem experimentado na Era digital. Redes Sociais; Festa popular; Internet; Religiosidade; Folkcomunicação. The Catholic Church has always sought to be connected with the media and the COVID-19 pandemic has further strengthened the religious institution's ties to social media. In this scenario, popular festivals also needed to reconfigure their practices to meet the need for isolation, which included the even stronger presence of these celebrations in the digital environment. In this context, the object of this research is the “Walk with Mary”, a traditional Catholic procession held in Fortaleza, which took place in virtual format in 2020. The methodology used is netnography, through the analysis of the comments of the faithful during the live broadcast of the religious festival. It was possible to observe how the participants appropriated these spaces to manifest devotional and voting practices, which demonstrates the communication opportunities that religiosity has experienced in the digital age. Social networks; Popular festival; Internet; Religiosity; Folkcommunication. La Iglesia Católica siempre ha buscado estar conectada con los medios de comunicación y la pandemia de COVID-19 ha fortalecido aún más los lazos de la institución religiosa con las redes sociales. En este escenario, las fiestas populares también necesitaban reconfigurar sus prácticas para satisfacer la necesidad de aislamiento, que incluía la presencia aún más fuerte de estas celebraciones en el entorno digital. En este contexto, el objeto de esta investigación es el “Caminata con María”, tradicional procesión católica celebrada en Fortaleza, que tuvo lugar en formato virtual en 2020. La metodología utilizada es la netnografía, a través del análisis de los comentarios de los fieles durante la transmisión en vivo. de la fiesta religiosa. Se pudo observar cómo los participantes se apropiaron de estos espacios para manifestar prácticas devocionales y de voto, lo que demuestra las oportunidades comunicativas que ha experimentado la religiosidad en la era digital. Redes sociales; Fiesta popular; Internet; Religiosidad; Comunicación popular.

Feast of Our Lady of Desire, Resplendent

Chapter 8, revisiting Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and taking its cue from Jake Barnes’s Catholic conscience, argues that Jake acts in recurrent if unspoken penitential redress, crafting with Lady Brett Ashley a sentimental, extramarital intimacy enabled, in part, but only in part, by his war wound. Barnes’ story entails the pilgrimage of his Anglo-American caste-mates from the monetary social economy of Paris to the buddy-buddy warmth of the borderland Pyrenees to the fully anticapitalist, extravagantly Catholic peasant Spain, where in religious festival male camaraderie is awash from spurting wine sacks and the holy spectacle of the bullfights offers truly enfleshed sacrifice—bloody, at times deadly Lady Brett, much admired and accomplished if still soul-doubting as the Goddess of resplendent desire, seeks in Pamplona to defeat the distancing worship of a Marian throne, setting her sights instead on communion with the men in the art of spectatorship (afición) only then to commingle with its great young bullfighter, Pedro Romero. Jake serves, of course, as the man in waiting to Our Lady Ashley—whereby pimp-istry and cuckoldry, requited sentiment and frustrated desire, wishful thinking and perfected intimacy dance together in lovely co-determination. In Fiedler’s broadest terms of love and death, Hemingway takes Transgression & Redemption full circle, enacting a Provençale-ization of the American imagination so thoroughly that incommensurable violative love is proven incarnate in the embodied passions of the heart but cannot be normatively domesticated—by Woman’s dictate (no children!) as much as by man’s fate—thus their blessed alt-intimacy.

Purchase Preferences and Buying Influences on Religious Occasions

The present study responds to calls from global agencies, regulators and activist groups to understand the impacts of religion on purchase decisions. The study reveals the purchase preferences and behaviour of consumers on occasions of a religious festival, that is, Eid-al-Fitr in an emerging market. The study aims to explore consumption patterns along with the specific reasons and factors influencing the purchasing behaviour of Muslim consumers during Eid-al-Fitr . The study is conducted as an ethnographic research in Bangladesh. Observations and interviews (on 100 event actors) were conducted between July 2014 and June 2018. The results reveal that Muslims undergo a shopping spree during their biggest religious festival Eid-al-Fitr. Purchase behaviour among Muslim society in Bangladesh is influenced by the head of family or senior citizens of the society. The study also tries to address the link among market, goods, services and consumers during the Eid-al-Fitr. Finally, the study identifies several key factors such as biological, neighbouring countries and issues of affiliation which may affect the purchasing behaviour of consumers during the religious occasions.

Religious Festival Marketing: Distinguishing between Devout Believers and Tourists

Customer classification is an integral part of marketing planning activities. Researchers have struggled to classify “pilgrims” and “tourists” because these groups overlap to a large extent in terms of their identities while participating in religious activities/sightseeing. To achieve sustainable tourism development for the region with rich religious and cultural characteristics, the present article outlines a process for analyzing the motivation of participants attending religious festival of Mazu in Taiwan and then classifies religious festival participants according to their motivations. Using cluster sampling, a total of 280 responses were obtained and analyzed. The results revealed four different motivation categories: Fun traveler, devout believer, cultural enthusiast, and religious pragmatist. The study concludes that while festivalgoers are influenced by secularization to some extent, the original doctrine of the religion epitomized in the festivals fundamentally retains the essence and spirit of its religious rituals. The findings may have a significant value for the development of religious tourism marketing as it offers a foundation for future research seeking to develop regional cultural and religious sightseeing attractions sustainably.

Maintaining Tradition to Establish Cohesion

Cultural heterogeneity and plurality of religions which grow, develop and survive in Lombok make this island such a pluralistic and multicultural miniature of Indonesia. This entity can be potentially integrative as a knit of social cohesiveness. However, in certain conditions and atmosphere, this diversity and culture can arise the emergence of conflict, violence and disaster if it is not managed properly. Muslims Sasak and Hindus Balineseethnic as the two largest communities in Lombok, often meet in space and stage conflict. The main factors are culture, economy, sectarianism, exclusivism, primordialism and multiculturalism education are still low.Despite repeated conflicts, it does not mean the social interaction of these two communities is not tolerated. Despite the conflicts that are always episodes, these two communities have local wisdom in the form of a religious festival of the perang topat tradition. This discourse is intended to describe the historical background of Islam and Hinduism in Lombok, analyze the causes of social conflict between the Muslim Sasak community and Hinduism Balinese ethnic in Lombok, as well as explore the local wisdom of the perang topat tradition as multicultural education base that can be made as a seeding of social cohesiveness.

How Authentic Experience Affects Traditional Religious Tourism Development

The purpose of the present study is to examine a theoretical model using authentic experience, perceived benefit, perceived cost, and support for tourism development among attendees of the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage in Taiwan. Overall, 1,244 usable responses were collected and analyzed. Analytic findings indicated that authentic experience and perceived benefits are precedents of support for tourism development. Perceived benefits significantly mediate the relationship between authentic experience and support for tourism development in both first-time and repeat attendees. The present study concludes that an individual who attends a traditional religious festival has authentic experiences of pilgrimage that create perceived benefits and lead to behavior that supports tourism development. The theoretical and managerial implications presented in this article elucidate an original theoretical framework and valuable insights for promoting support for tourism development, potentially also contributing to the literature.