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Moved by the Dead - (Where Religion Lives) by Michael Amoruso
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About this item
Highlights
- In the sprawling city of São Paulo, a weekly practice known as devotion to souls (devoção às almas) draws devotees to Catholic churches, cemeteries, and other sites associated with tragic or unjust deaths.
- About the Author: Michael Amoruso is assistant professor of religious studies at Occidental College.
- 202 Pages
- Social Science, Sociology of Religion
- Series Name: Where Religion Lives
Description
About the Book
"In the sprawling city of Säao Paulo, a weekly practice known as devotion to souls (devoðcäao áas almas) draws devotees to Catholic churches, cemeteries, and other sites associated with tragic or unjust deaths. The living pray and light candles for the souls of the dead, remembering events and circumstances in a rite of collective suffering. Yet contemporary devotion to souls is not confined to Catholic adherents or fixed to specific locations. The practice is also linked to popular tours of haunted sites in the city, and it moves within an urban environment routinely marked by violence and death. While based in Catholic traditions, devotion to souls is as complex and multifaceted as religion itself in Brazil, where African, Portuguese, and other cultural forms have blended and evolved over centuries. Michael Amoruso's insightful work uses the methods of ethnography, religious studies, and urban studies to consider how devotion to souls embodies, adapts, and challenges conventional ideas of religion as tethered to specific sites and practices. Examining devotees' varied ways of ascribing meaning to their actions, Amoruso argues that devotion to souls acts as form of what he calls 'mnemonic repair,' tying the living to the dead in a struggle against the forces of forgetting"Book Synopsis
In the sprawling city of São Paulo, a weekly practice known as devotion to souls (devoção às almas) draws devotees to Catholic churches, cemeteries, and other sites associated with tragic or unjust deaths. The living pray and light candles for the souls of the dead, remembering events and circumstances in a rite of collective suffering. Yet contemporary devotion to souls is not confined to Catholic adherents or fixed to specific locations. The practice is also linked to popular tours of haunted sites in the city, and it moves within an urban environment routinely marked by violence and death. While based in Catholic traditions, devotion to souls is as complex and multifaceted as religion itself in Brazil, where African, Portuguese, and other cultural forms have blended and evolved over centuries.Michael Amoruso's insightful work uses the methods of ethnography, religious studies, and urban studies to consider how devotion to souls embodies, adapts, and challenges conventional ideas of religion as tethered to specific sites and practices. Examining devotees' varied ways of ascribing meaning to their actions, Amoruso argues that devotion to souls acts as form of what he calls "mnemonic repair," tying the living to the dead in a struggle against the forces of forgetting.
About the Author
Michael Amoruso is assistant professor of religious studies at Occidental College.Dimensions (Overall): 9.21 Inches (H) x 6.14 Inches (W) x .47 Inches (D)
Weight: .64 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Series Title: Where Religion Lives
Sub-Genre: Sociology of Religion
Genre: Social Science
Number of Pages: 202
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Format: Paperback
Author: Michael Amoruso
Language: English
Street Date: April 15, 2025
TCIN: 94262388
UPC: 9781469685175
Item Number (DPCI): 247-40-2407
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 0.47 inches length x 6.14 inches width x 9.21 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.64 pounds
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