Emotive movement on the road to Santiago de Compostella

This article focuses on the emotions pilgrims experience on the road to Santiago de Compostela in the northwest of Spain. An increasing number of pilgrims take the road ( el camino ) to Santiago, but for many of them the movement on foot seems to be more important than reaching the tomb of St. James. The article asks what emotions pilgrims experienced, whether these were related to a quest for healing and given a spiritual or religious meaning, and if so how. Moreover, it asks what role bodily movement played in evoking these emotions. As well as through interviewing pilgrims, material was gathered through participant observation and experiencing the impact of ritual movement by walking the pilgrims’ route together with the pilgrims. We argue that the current revived interest for walking el camino cannot be explained without understanding the spiritual and healing effects it can have for pilgrims. Through our focus on emotions, we want to contribute to the anthropological debate on the often-ignored importance of bodily movement in religious rituals