Kanheri: The archaeology of an early Buddhist pilgrimage centre in western India

Pilgrimage as costly signal: Religiously motivated cooperation in Chaco and Nasca

“…Items received at the pilgrimage destination, such as materialized symbols of the belief system only obtainable at the center itself, could be very important for demonstrating that the purported pilgrim really did follow through with the costly signal of his or her commitment to the religious system. Tiny clay stupas, for example, were often made or received during pilgrimages to Buddhist ceremonial sites across Asia and taken home as proof of the visit (e.g., Ray, 1994; see also Jordan, 2002, Table 6.59, Rogers, 2003, pp. 65-66, Webb, 2000.…”

“…Rather than considering how the related phenomena of pilgrimage and pilgrimage centers emerge in the first place, the limited work on the archaeology of pilgrimage has tended to focus on the identification of pilgrimage centers in the archaeological record (e.g., Ray, 1994;Renfrew, 2001;Silverman, 1994). In this paper, we build on previous studies of contemporary pilgrimage and past pilgrimage by exploring the possibility that pilgrimage centers develop as costly signals of status for leaders who reside there and/or who are responsible for the activities that take place at the centers.…”

15. Trends in Economic History Writing of Early South Asia

“…Most of his findings and propositions did not remain unchallenged, although they were echoed for years. Even his contemporary, archaeologist R. G. Collingwood, had questioned his as-  Ray 1986;1994a;1994b;2003.  Ray 20062008a, 193.…”

Rethinking archaeologies of pilgrimage

“…In the first studies, published in the 1980s, scholars constructed pilgrimage fair models from ethnohistoric and colonial accounts and applied them to ancient Maya cities and the sites of Chaco Canyon and Poverty Point in North America (Freidel, 1981; Freidel and Sabloff, 1984; Hammond, 1983; Jackson, 1991; Judge, 1989; Kubler, 1985; Toll, 1985; Windes, 1987). Pilgrimage scholarship in archaeology has proliferated since these initial studies (Bradley, 1999; Candy, 2009; Coleman and Elsner, 1994; Drennen et al., 2017; Gray, 2001; Hammond and Bobo, 1994; Harbison, 1994; Kelly and Brown, 2012; Kristensen and Friese, 2017; Lepper, 2006; Locker, 2015; Lucero and Kinkella, 2015; Lymer, 2004; McCorriston, 2011, 2013; Mack, 2002; Malville and Malville, 2001; Oetelaar, 2012; Patel, 2005; Petersen, 1994; Plog and Watson, 2012; Ray, 1994; Scarre, 2001; Schachner, 2011; Sheets, 2011; Silverman, 1991, 1994; Skousen, 2016; Spivey et al., 2015; Stopford, 1994; Wells and Nelson, 2007). The goal of many of them is to identify the archaeological signatures of pilgrimage centers by envisioning what material remains pilgrimage activities might leave behind (see Silverman, 1994 for a good example).…”