Emma's Willow: Historical Anxiety, Mormon Pilgrimage and Nauvoo's "Mater Dolorosa"
Religious institutions establish collective identities through the production of a usable past, and thereby provide adherents with a sense of heritage. This article examines how this process functions in a Mormon pilgrimage site, Nauvoo, Illinois, where not one but two competing institutions, the Ch...
| Published in: | Material religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2016]
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| In: |
Material religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Nauvoo, Ill.
/ Smith, Emma 1804-1879
/ Pilgrimage
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion KDH Christian sects |
| Further subjects: | B
Nauvoo
B Emma Smith B Pilgrimage B Memory B Mormonism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Religious institutions establish collective identities through the production of a usable past, and thereby provide adherents with a sense of heritage. This article examines how this process functions in a Mormon pilgrimage site, Nauvoo, Illinois, where not one but two competing institutions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Community of Christ, have established alternative narratives of identity. I focus on the thousands of (almost exclusively) LDS pilgrims who visit the town each summer. I argue that the presence of multiple interpretations raises significant anxieties for many of these pilgrims. In an attempt to mediate these anxieties a vernacular religious site, a willow tree, is employed to point pilgrims to a Saint figure, Emma Smith, Joseph Smith Jr.'s widow, in order to fortify an alternative narrative existing outside of either official representation of Nauvoo's past. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2016.1227634 |