Item Detail
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22009
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9
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0
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English
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Concealing the Body, Concealing the Sacred : The Decline of Ritual Nudity in Mormon Temples
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Journal of Ritual Studies
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2007
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21
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no.2
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1-21
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"This article traces the gradual decline of nudity in a Mormon temple ritual called the initiatory and interprets that decline by setting it against intersecting Mormon discourses about the body and the sacred. Mormon discourse that figures the body as a temple produces an imperative to conceal the body, just as Mormons conceal temple rituals in the interest of sacred secrecy. The decline of ritual nudity in the initiatory extends the imperative to conceal the body into a realm where the imperative had fomerly been held in suspension. By concealing initiates' bodies, the revised initiatory also conceals the church's power over members' bodies--i.e., the church's power to dictate whether initiates receive this rite nude or clothed--a power that was visible when the church required complete or partial nudity but became invisible when nudity was abolished. An initiate himself, the author examines the ethical complexities of discussing, in scholarly settings, rituals that Mormons treat as secret. The author also discusses the competing theoretical imperative he negotiates in using scholarly tools to interpret a ritual in which he is religiously invested." [Publisher's abstract]
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