Valdini, Todd N.

Relationships
Member of: Graduate College
Person Preferred Name
Valdini, Todd N.
Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Pilgrimages have produced volumes of textual reflections by pilgrims and
outside observers. These writers represent a wide variety of disciplines from travel
theorists to travel bloggers, medieval historians to modern anthropologists and
sociologists. The findings of this study reveal two major complex metaphor systems:
one based on a series of interlaced existential metaphors orbiting the nuclear LIFE IS A
JOURNEY and the other stemming from a network of economic metaphors of MORAL
ACCOUNTING. The symbolic exchange embedded in these metaphorical systems
reflects the human desire for a meaningful and worthy life. These mutually
supporting complex systems of metaphor reveal an existential connection between the
medieval pilgrim and the contemporary tourist.