This essay uses the yearlong, transatlantic, Afro-Buddhist, 'Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage' performed in 1998-9 by a transnational Japanese Buddhist peace project, the Nipponzan Myohoji order, to reassess Victor Turner's...
moreThis essay uses the yearlong, transatlantic, Afro-Buddhist, 'Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage' performed in 1998-9 by a transnational Japanese Buddhist peace project, the Nipponzan Myohoji order, to reassess Victor Turner's classic concept of 'communitas' under current conditions of global cultural reterritorialization. In describing the pilgrims' goal of healing the legacy of slavery, racism, by walking Atlantic history in reverse, I attempt to understand the ironic outbreak of racism among the pilgrims. In doing so, I ask how the pilgrims' use of hybrid ritual practices and a website to broadcast reports from the road complicates Turner's straightforward vision of communitas as a monocultural phenomenon and a face-to-face experience.
