Places in Motion: The Fluid Identities Of Temples, Images, And Pilgrims

An In-depth Examination Of The Complex Dynamics Of Religiously Charged Places. Focusing On Several Important Shared And Contested Pilgrimage Places--ground Zero And Devils Tower In The United States, Ayodhya And Bodhgaya In India, Karbala In Iraq-- He Poses A Number Of Crucial Questions. What And Who Has Made These Sites Important, And Why? How Are They Shared, And How And Why Are They Contested? What Is At Stake In Their Contestation? How Are The Particular Identities Of Place And Space Established? How Are Individual And Collective Identity Intertwined With Space And Place? Challenging Long-accepted, Clean Divisions Of The Religious World, Kinnard Explores Specific Instances Of The Vibrant Messiness Of Religious Practice, The Multivocality Of Religious Objects, The Fluid And Hybrid Dynamics Of Religious Places, And The Shifting And Tangled Identities Of Religious Actors.--cover. Preface: The Questions Of Places -- Place, Contestation, And The Complexities Of Agency -- Power Fallen From The Sky -- The Polyvalent Pādas Of Viṣṇu And The Buddha -- The Drama Of Viṣṇu And The Buddha At Bodhgayā -- Bodhgayā, Unesco, And The Ambiguities Of Preservation -- The Power And The Politics Of Emplacement -- Public Space Or Sacred Place? -- Fences And Walls: A Not-so-final Reflection On Preservations, Prohibitions, And Places In Motion. Jacob N. Kinnard. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.