Similar to other advanced semiotic systems, we differ three aspects in the magic fairy-tale - creation The study deals with the analysis of the source Consignatio Processionum ex Decanatibus Parochii in Marchionatus Moravia existencibus annue Duci Solitarum (1771, written in Latin and deposited in the archive funds of the Olomouc Consistory, which brings knowledge concerning pilgrim activities in Moravia, or, more precisely, in the diocese of Olomouc in 1771. The source lists 448 locations in total, from which people made collective pilgrimages or processions, several villages from one parish frequently setting off on a common pilgrimage. On the basis of the analysis of Consignatio processionum [...] we can find out that during 1771, pilgrims from the whole of the diocese of Olomouc set off on journeys to 328 places. Out of these 328 places, 91 were places of pilgrimage of varying importance (including places abroad), in further 70 places we cannot claim with certainty that we deal with a place of pilgrimage of local importance, or if people made a pilgrimage there in connection with the church or chapel patronal feast day. On the basis of the established data, we can form an idea about the density of the pilgrim traffic, the number of the places visited, or for example the destinations of the pilgrims beyond the borders of Moravia (whether Polish Częstochowa, Hungarian Šaštín, or Styrian Mariazell), and a number of other factors connected with carrying out collective pilgrimages.
The article deals with the Victor Turner’s anthropology of pilgrimage in the light of the journey to Compostela. First, an introduction to the concept of rites de passage and communitas is given. The following is a description of the Way of Saint James, its medieval and postmodern forms. The core of the study lies in the comparison of the ethnohistoric as well as ethnographic data and corresponding pilgrims’ competing discourses with the theory. It is argued that communitas may be conceived as a structuralist, sociological or psychological phenomenon, and that all of these levels may be included in the pilgrimage. Nevertheless, it is sustained that it depends on various circumstances and multiple discourses that operate and interact in the pilgrimage process. Finally, three Turner’s topics are stressed to be useful in the present anthropology of pilgrimage: the experience as subjective feeling, bodily practice, and sensual enjoyment. Using the arguments of Halbwachs, Bruner, Connerton or Stoller, a shift from general ideas, norms, values, systems and structures to specific images, feelings, experiences and goals is recognized. Thereby the Turner’s anthropology of performance and experience is situated within the particular direction of the postmodern turn and recent social theory.