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Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society

Abstract

Bethany Beyond the Jordan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site advertised as the baptismal site of Jesus of Nazareth, lies on the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank. Based on first-person observation, this article provides a semiotic analysis of how tourist spaces, commodification, and security infrastructure interact to create perceptions of sacred space. When placed in conversation with the historical and political contexts of the site, these factors provide insight into how meanings of sacrality are generated. I argue that notions of the sacred at Bethany Beyond the Jordan are shaped by tourism spaces and their organizing of ritual encounters, the commodification of sites and souvenirs, and state security practices tied to border geopolitics. Rather than viewing them as neutral sites of pilgrimage, this paper conceptualizes sacred spaces in the Holy Land as sites shaped by the forces of tourism, security, state governance, and materiality, which are enmeshed in power dynamics.

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