2020 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 357-386
Following recently expanded definitions of "pilgrimage," this paper examines how travelers heading for a specific destination create relationships with things. Here, I distinguish between two conventional approaches to "things": one focused on examining things as a means of human recognition and the other on examining a world of things unrelated to humans. By adopting an approach that lies between these, I posit that sensory experience can encompass "things," regardless of whether they are tangible or real. Constituting an ethnographic study of the Camino de Santiago, which highlights senses of direction and distance, this paper shows how pilgrims build and rebuild relationships with various things that tend to be dampened in daily life. Furthermore, I propose a theory for interpreting Heidegger's concept of "ready-to-hand" (revealing our involvement in the world). To achieve this aim, I have developed a new concept of "out-of-reach" which refers to providing an aspiration for something that is neither confined to nor segregated from the world experiences that pilgrims undergo.
