In Dubious Battle on the Plains of Heav'n

The Politics of Possession in Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre

Bibliographic Data

ID2156249
AuthorsGlenn Bowman (0000-0002-6521-4363, Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume22
Issue3
Pages371-399
Publication date2011-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.2011.595008
OpenAlexW2027531959
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited38

Debates about the "divisibility" or "sharing" of religious sites continue to engage historians, political scientists and anthropologists. This paper assesses the issue of agency in two of the more salient critiques of religious coexistence before approaching the Holy Sepulchre, or Anastasis, as a site for investigating the way various constituencies, most significantly visiting pilgrims and resident monks, have dealt with issues of "sharing". It contends that inter-communal antagonisms there originate with elite struggles over the possessions of places - struggles which tend to engage political actors far from the site of the conflicts rather than local communities - and concludes that, rather than accept an "identitarian politics" which assumes a profound "civilisational" attachment of cultures to religious identities, we must carefully assess the "politics of possession" which variously play out in sites of inter-communal engagement

Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Battle · Elite · Political science · Politics · Possession (linguistics · Social science · Sociology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law

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