How Do You Know When You're in a Cult?: The Continuing Influence of Peoples Temple and Jonestown in Contemporary Minority Religions and Popular Culture
This article examines representations of Peoples Temple in popular culture through the lens of mimesis, understood as a process of repetition and re-creation of specific elements. This process produces what is understood as a cult in popular culture, which is divorced from the complex historical r...
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| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
University of Californiarnia Press
[2018]
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| Dans: |
Nova religio
Année: 2018, Volume: 22, Numéro: 2, Pages: 93-114 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Peoples Temple
/ Influence
/ Culture quotidienne
/ Nouvelle religiosité
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| RelBib Classification: | AZ Nouveau mouvement religieux |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Peoples Temple
B minority religions B United States of America B Popular Culture B Mimésis B Cults |
| Accès en ligne: |
Accès probablement gratuit Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Résumé: | This article examines representations of Peoples Temple in popular culture through the lens of mimesis, understood as a process of repetition and re-creation of specific elements. This process produces what is understood as a cult in popular culture, which is divorced from the complex historical reality of Peoples Temple. Three symbolic strands combine to construct the concept of a cult: the power of a charismatic leader, isolation from outside influences, and consuming poison, or drinking the Kool-Aid. In popular culture, these symbols are used in order to apportion blame, to learn lessons, and to act as a warning. Peoples Temple was a collective trauma for American culture as well as an individual trauma for survivors. The process of mimesis, therefore, is a way of both memorializing and reinscribing this trauma on a cultural level. Examples from ethnographic research conducted in Sedona, Arizona, are used to illustrate how symbols of Jonestown generated by cultural mimesis continue to be invoked by participants in contemporary minority religions as a way to signal their concern about whether they belong to a cult. |
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| ISSN: | 1541-8480 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Nova religio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1525/nr.2018.22.2.93 |