Cultural Analysis of Pilgrimage and Secularism in Contemporary Iran

Pilgrimage as a practical manifestation of religiosity could be studied through the context of different communities. In the process of Modernism in Iran, this ritual as a social action have encountered rather objective changes. Although pilgrimage was considered as a homogenous and balanced interaction, today it has turned into a heterogeneous and imbalanced one. Varieties of typical Iranian pilgrimage can be seen as a consequence of Modernism in Iran.In this study, we try to explore and understand heterogeneous elements incorporated in pilgrimage focusing on this variety of pilgrimage caused by Modernity and the so-called Secularism. We tend to find out if one can examine a traditional and religious action like pilgrimage with the help of modern developments in society. Hence, five categories of pilgrimage in Iranian society is recognized here as, ritualistic, distance, feminine, metropolitan, and political pilgrimage. Methodology in this qualitative research is based on ethnographic perspectives. The data is gathered from letters of pilgrims to Imam Reza, their travel stories, interviews and auto-ethnography of the researchers.