in Shamanism, rev. & enl. ed. (New York, 1964), and per-
haps the most exhaustive account of particular Islamic cus-
toms is to be found in Edward Westermarck’s Ritual and Be-
lief in Morocco, 2 vols. (1926; reprint, New Hyde Park,
N.Y., 1968).
GEOFFREY PARRINDER (1987)TOURISM AND RELIGION. Tourism and its as-
sociated practices interact with religious life and the institu-
tions of religion in virtually every corner of the world. From
Amish communities of rural Pennsylvania to the snowy sum-
mits of Mount Fuji in Japan, from the mysterious ruins of
Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes to the monumental
pyramids of Giza in Egypt, from Chartres in France to the
Western Wall in Jerusalem, millions of tourists seek out
places of religion every year. The relationship between reli-
gion and tourism, however, amounts to far more than places
of religion that host tourist visitors. In fact, there are at least
three broad approaches to understanding this relationship:
spatial, historical, and cultural. Each of these illuminates dif-
ferent implications for religious life when tourists enter a sa-
cred precinct.
SPATIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND TOURISM.
Tourists and religious adherents often occupy the same
spaces; consequently, they both play a role in attributing
meanings to these spaces and in sustaining the sacred charac-
ter of sites that host both casual and deeply committed visi-
tors. In fact, the religious meanings that make a place sacred
also make the site a meaningful destination for tourists. At
the same time, however, tourists and religious practitioners
usually have very different attachments to and understand-
ings of these sacred spaces.
Spaces become sacred according to the historical, social,
and cultural contexts of particular religious traditions. The
holy nature of Mecca, for instance, cannot be understood
apart from the historical and sociocultural contexts of Islam.
Indeed, the close identification between Islam and its most
sacred city make them nearly indistinguishable. Likewise, the
shrine at Tepeyac, which houses the sacred image of the Vir-
gin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, gains its auspicious powers
from the miraculous appearance of the Virgin there; these
powers, however, also derive from the historical circum-
stances of colonial relations between European Christians
and Native American converts, as well as from the racial, eth-
nic, gender, and socioeconomic dynamics of subsequent gen-
erations of Catholic worshippers at the site. Both of these
cases demonstrate how places are made holy according to
particular religious traditions and the spatial practices that
sustain their sacred character.
Tourists, on the other hand, arrive with a different set
of spatial practices embedded in their own peculiar historical,
social, and cultural contexts. Unlike religious practices relat-
ed to particular sacred spaces, however, the spatial practices
of tourists rely on modern conventions of travel and aesthet-
ics practiced in the context of global capitalism. Hence, they
make these spaces into touristic places that remain distinct
from the sacred places of religious people. At Tepeyac, for
instance, the sacredness sustained in veneration of the Virgin
of Guadalupe appears to a touristic sensibility in terms of aes-
thetics, history, and the exotic otherness of unfamiliar cultic
behaviors. Thus, the space of Tepeyac becomes simulta-
neously a place of religious practice and a place of touristic
indulgence.Places of both religion and tourism range from the pre-
dominantly religious to the predominantly touristic. As an
example of the former, the prohibition of non-Muslims in
Mecca keeps Islam’s most holy city free from purely touristic
travelers, although the touristic imagination of non-Muslims
makes it a desirable, if improbable, destination. In contrast,
Uluru in Australia, the world’s largest monolith, retains its
mythic significance as a sacred site for Aboriginal people, but
it is best known for the striking beauty of its ethereal hues.
A half million annual visitors make the journey deep into the
Australian interior to view the giant outcropping set in the
stark outback landscape.Between the extremes of predominantly religious and
predominantly touristic lies a great variety of religious places
that host significant numbers of tourist visitors. These places
range from the ancient to the contemporary, from auspicious
features of the natural landscape to glass and steel architec-
tural structures, from remote spots far from human habita-
tion to the centers of the world’s most densely populated
urban areas. In addition, tourists seek out religious events
that include regularly performed rituals, special dedicatory
events, festivals, and carnivals. There seems no end to the
types and locales of religious sites and celebrations that ap-
peal to the curiosities of touristic travelers.Among the most auspicious of places that tourists seek
out are natural features regarded as sacred by one or more
religious traditions. Mount Fuji, for example, looms above
the Japanese landscape as a sacred monument in both the
Shinto ̄ and Buddhist traditions; at the same time, the moun-
tain serves as one of Japan’s most recognizable icons for tour-
ists. Caves, on the other hand, tend to appeal to visitors more
for their ancient artwork associated with prehistoric religions
rather than for their inherent sacredness. At places like Las-
caux in France and the Altamira caves of northern Spain, vis-
itors can tour exact replicas of the caverns complete with de-
tailed copies of their ancient paintings, even though entrance
into the caves themselves is restricted at both sites.Tourists also visit the architectural ruins of places where
ancient peoples practiced their religions. Among the most fa-
mous of these sites are the remains of structures built by the
Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and other civilizations of the an-
cient Mediterranean world. Similarly in Indonesia, travelers
can visit the restored Buddhist temple of Borobudur. Prehis-
toric sites in the Americas include the monumental pyramids
and other sacred structures of Teotihuacan in central Mexi-9260 TOURISM AND RELIGION