Stand ye in holy places: place and identity in contemporary Mormon meetinghouses

Update Item Information
Title Stand ye in holy places: place and identity in contemporary Mormon meetinghouses
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Humanities
Department Environmental Humanities Program
Author Matthes, Ruedigar Paul
Date 2016
Description Latter-Day Saint ward meetinghouses have been designed to emphasize certain spatial mythologies of the Church in order to encourage a distinct(ly Mormon) sense of place. The meanings interpreted in these places inform member relationships both within Mormon culture and across societal cultures. Furthermore, these texts inadvertently tell the global story of "circulation, consumption and communication" which are key features of what anthropologist Marc Augé calls "non-places" (vii). This thesis explores the tensions that exist in the stories told through contemporary meetinghouses and which inform Mormon religious and cultural practices. In order to explore these tensions, I engage in close readings of significant Mormon religious texts and the Mormon built environment. I also draw from ethnographic fieldwork performed at an LDS meetinghouse in Utah. Through this mixed-methods approach, I hope to explore the role of LDS architectural practices on the cultural identities and understandings of active LDS practitioners.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Culture; Identity; Mormon; Non-place; Place; Space
Dissertation Name Master of Science in Environmental Humanities
Language eng
Rights Management ©Ruedigar Paul Matthes
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,636,444 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/4240
ARK ark:/87278/s6jh6vjf
Setname ir_etd
ID 197785
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jh6vjf
Back to Search Results