Sibonakaliso Shadrack NHLABATHI, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Brij MAHARAJ, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Sacred places, the world over, serve as magnets either for pilgrims or just for tourists. Besides their material expressions in the form of symbolic objects, iconography, and architecture, also, the religious ceremonies and rituals associated with them attract a lot of curious visitors. The dynamic nature of these sites and their material expressions have not been conceptualized in relation to space and time. So, this paper explores prominent sacredscapes in Durban, South Africa, in terms of their material expressions in space and in time. That is, how their location and interpretation has changed between apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. These sacred sites attract huge numbers of pilgrims, also, these sites serve as attractions to sizeable numbers of tourists. Two concepts, that is, Michel Foucault’s heterotopia and Henri Lefebvre’s representational space concept, an element of the spatial triad theory, provide the basis of analysis of these sacred places and religious rituals. This paper uses qualitative research methods.
Mots clés : Sacred places|pilgrims|heterotopias|tourism|post-apartheid
A103680SN