The Making of Saints: Contesting Sacred Ground

The Making of Saints: Contesting Sacred Ground
James F Hopgood,James F Hopgood,Yoram Bilu,Irene Stengs,June Macklin,Phyllis Passariello,Gillian E. Newell,William Breen Murray,Carolyn S. Stevens,Erika Doss,Walter Randolph Adams,Roberto Bosca | 2005-04-24 00:00:00 | University Alabama Press | 248 | Social Sciences

Celebrities and popular icons are increasingly ubiquitous figures of a 21st century postmodern world. Some, in death, blur age-old distinctions of sanctification and trespass on sacred ground long held exclusively by religious saints. An emerging continuum is transforming that sacred arena and raising a number of important issues, including the nature of the relationships between the worshipped and the worshipful and the types of institutions that sustain them. The Making of Saints: Contesting Sacred Ground investigates a number of religious leaders, healers, folk saints, and popular icons in seeking to identify their commonalities and discover how they speak to the same inner yearnings of human beings for gods and heroes. Issues of social relations, love, emotion, charisma, power, and sanctification are addressed by the contributors. Analyses of hagiographies, biographies, media, control of space, pilgrimage, and acts of devotion provide the bases for the authors' explorations of these issues. Among the sanctified included for analysis are the folk saints El Nino Fidencio and Teresa Urrea; the charismatic rabbis Baba Sali, Baba Baruch, and Ifargan; King Chalalongkorn of Thailand; two political figures, Evita Perón and Ché Guevara; and three celebrities: James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Japanese rock star, HIDE. The contributors challenge notions of what is sacred and who may be sanctified, and argue that a broadening of views is needed to accommodate and appreciate emerging contemporary realities. Contributors: Walter Randolph Adams, Yoram Bilu, Roberto Bosca, Erika Doss, James F. Hopgood, June Macklin, William Breen Murray, Gillian E. Newell, Phyllis Passariello, Irene Stengs, Carolyn S. Stevens James F. Hopgood is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Founding Director of the Museum of Anthropology at Northern Kentucky University. Author of Settlers of Bajavista: Urban Adaptation in a Mexican Squatter Settlement, Hopgood was presented the 2003 Strongest Influence Award by the NKU Alumni Association.

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