Seeing the Sacred : A Photographic Exploration of Bodily Boundaries

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Authors
Wilson, Elizabeth
Issue Date
2008
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Thesis
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en_US
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Abstract
The aim of religious activity is to totalize, to bring everything into a grand scheme, a cosmic order which supersedes all other order. The author suggests that secular activity, on the other hand, is distinct from religious in that it does not have this motivation. It is clear that "ritual" is a social activity, sharing many defining features and functions with photography and social activity in general. In both ritual activity and photography, experience is guided and limited according to what is considered acceptable or most important. Certain images and relations are privileged as dominant while others dominated, and as this shapes notions of significance within a social group, it is at the same time contingent on societal contexts. Both the photographer and the ritualized agent exert efforts to control and construct meaningful environments or images while concurrently these efforts are continually molded and guided by the environment and images surrounding them. She suggests that the relationship between photography and reality is analogous to the relationship between ritual activity and the sacred.
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35 p.
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U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.
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