shared sacred places 379
emblematic locations render multi-confessional pilgrimage problematic; a good
example of this is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Mixed pilgrims are
best left to themselves, in the margins of political and religious territories. As will be
seen below, the Eastern Christian denominations, partaking of a long tradition of
hierarchical segmentation and minority status within with Muslim majority states,
have considered situations of mixing and sharing as less challenging than the stronger
hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church.
Some shared holy places also exist within the historical capitals of the eastern
Mediterranean, where local populations have been living as neighbors since the early
years of Christianity or Islam: in Istanbul, Damascus, Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, people
from more than one religious group visit Christian or Muslim holy places seeking help
and healing. Shared shrines (abandoned or still in use) are testimonies of the possibil-
ity of peaceful coexistence, of the ordinary character of the experience of mixing and
sharing in between times of conflict. Mixed practices do not follow a single pattern:
like Afro–Brazilian rituals, they are particular, singular results of long processes involv-
ing multiple mixing, interbreeding and a series of bricolages. These are symbolically
complex and multiple practices, changing in shape and importance in relation to the
specific social, political and demographic conditions of the performing religious
groups. Debates around this phenomenon also address issues of “tolerance” towards
minorities or unorthodox religious practices, a term covering many diverse realities
across time and space. Ethnography can help decipher the multiple layers of meaning
involved in these traditional practices.
Ethnographic examplesShared ritual practices in which members of (mostly Eastern) Christian and Muslim
communities are engaged follow a number of “sharing” patterns, some of which have
been described since the Middle Ages in the eastern Mediterranean and can still be
observed today. Common elements concern essentially ritual practices and ritual
know-how shared by visitors regardless of their “Christian” or “Muslim” social
identity—for example, lighting candles upon entering Christian churches or receiving
sanctified bread distributed to the congregation after mass regardless of creed, pray-
ing before an icon, receiving prayer and/or benediction from the officiating priest,
offering animals for sacrifice and distribution of meat to the poor in both Christian
and Muslim sanctuaries. Local know-how about holy places includes knowledge
about and ways of sharing space and time (appropriate dates and time to visit a par-
ticular shrine, appropriate body language, where to stand, kneel, walk around sacred
space, what gestures to perform), or about manipulating ritual objects inside or out-
side sanctuaries. Travelers and ethnographers of shared shrines in the Ottoman lands
mention the use of strings and strips of cloth attached to nearby bushes and trees or
coins rubbed against icons or slabs of marble as carriers of wishes that are fulfilled
when the coin miraculously adheres to the slippery surface and stays there, or appro-
priate offerings (candles, or oil for the lamp), or means to communicate with the
guardians of the sacred places: how to slip a piece of paper on which prayers or wishes
have been scribbled into the appropriate box in Christian churches (Couroucli,
2012b; Albera and Fliche, 2012). Today, one can observe newcomers learning
“pilgrim ways” from other visitors: how to behave in front of icons, how to use