Alexandria Digital Research Library

Spectacular flesh : American religious pluralism and the cultural politics of bodily display

Author:
Roberts, Martha Smith
Degree Grantor:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Religious Studies
Degree Supervisor:
Wade Clark Roof
Place of Publication:
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]
Publisher:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Creation Date:
2016
Issued Date:
2016
Topics:
Ethnic studies, Judaic studies, Political science, and Religion
Keywords:
Holocaust Museums
Body Worlds
American Religious Pluralism
Diversity
World's Fair
Pluralism
Genres:
Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
Dissertation:
Ph.D.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016
Description:

This project examines American religious diversity and pluralism in twentieth-century United States. Much of the research on religious pluralism in the U.S. highlights diversity in belief and practice while de-emphasizing the role of the human body, race, and ethnicity. I utilize William R. Hutchison's definition of pluralism as toleration, inclusion, and participation to better understand contemporary post-racial pluralism as a particular way of making meaningful diversity through participation. My dissertation argues that "New Religious Pluralism" in the U.S. (the diverse religious milieu created by post-1965 immigration) must be understood in terms of the concepts of race and ethnicity that developed alongside twentieth-century scientific and neoliberal discourses of individual freedom. Using ethnographic and historical methods, I examine displays of human bodies at public exhibitions that promote tolerance from 1893 to the present. World's Fairs, Holocaust Museums, and Body Worlds exhibitions are all investigated in order to trace the larger development of a racialized religious tolerance in twentieth-century America. I argue that the discourse of religious freedom and tolerance in American culture relies as much on a particular diversity of human bodies as it does a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, and that participatory pluralism is cultivated in public spaces where Americans encounter human bodies on display and learn techniques to interpret those bodies.

Physical Description:
1 online resource (258 pages)
Format:
Text
Collection(s):
UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
ARK:
ark:/48907/f32b8z5q
ISBN:
9781369340884
Catalog System Number:
990047189900203776
Rights:
Inc.icon only.dark In Copyright
Copyright Holder:
Martha Roberts
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