To Walk and to Be Walked… at the End of the World

Abstract

This chapter describes the research project ‘Heritagization Processes along the Camino de Santiago: Santiago-Finisterre-Muxía Route’. This project addresses two issues: firstly, the consequences of pilgrimage on the daily lives of those living in the towns and villages through which the route passes, and secondly, the heritage construction processes (heritagization) taking place along the Camino. Research involved the gathering of survey data in order to analyze the socioeconomic impact of the pilgrimage on businesses along the route, together with ethnographic studies carried out in three places on the Camino: Vilaserío (municipal district of Negreira), Olveiroa (municipal district of Dumbría) and Finisterre (municipal district of Finisterre). This chapter also offers an overview of the key concepts used throughout the rest of the chapters, such as ‘heritagization’ (or heritage construction processes), a concept used to analyze two underlying forces of heritage policies: economic development and identity politics.