‘If it comes from Juazeiro, it’s blessed’! Liquid and solid attachment in systems of object itineraries of pilgrimages

ABSTRACT

Building on an interpretive approach, we employ the multi-sited ethnographic methods of ‘following the thing’ and ‘following the people’ to track the movements of consumers and objects during a Catholic pilgrimage in the Northeast region of Brazil. We find a system of object itineraries that exemplifies how pilgrims liquefy and solidify attachments to objects to relate to God and saints during movements between their home and the sacred site. We expand perceptions by showing how materiality and relevance to the self can be important even in liquidity. Our findings have implications to the understanding of consumption of the spiritual and liquid/solid attachment to sacred objects.

KEYWORDS:

• Object itineraries
• liquid attachment
• pilgrimage
• ethnography
• following the thing

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the pilgrims and the Church coordinators in Juazeiro for their generosity in sharing their experiences and information for this research. The authors also thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers, as well as Carla Abdalla, Victoria Rodner, Eliane Brito, Rodrigo Castilhos, Robin Canifford, Bernardo Figueiredo, Daiane Scaraboto and Diego Rinallo for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this article. Early versions of this paper also received relevant feedbacks during Consumer Culture Theory Conference 2018 and Theorising Consumer Culture Workshop 2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sertão is a hot and dry sub-region of Northeast Brazil. Pilgrims from this harsh environment demonstrate an intimate relationship with God and saints, praying for rain, good health, food, and many other material necessities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel).

Notes on contributors

Jannsen Santana

Jannsen Santana is a PhD student at ESCP Europe – Paris Campus, France. This study is based on his masters’ thesis research at FGV EAESP.

Delane Botelho

Delane Botelho is an associate professor of Marketing at São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV/EAESP), Brazil. His current research interests centre on emotions and culture in consumer behaviour.