Gods and knickknacks : the American adoption of Asian religious items

Graduation date: 2008This thesis contains the cultural biography of Buddhist and Hindu items in a\ud small college town in the United States. It explores different factors that have led to\ud the availability of these items here, what attracts Americans to them, and the meanings\ud they give these items. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both sellers\ud and consumers of Asian religious items. From these interviews four snap-shots within\ud the cultural biography of these items emerged. Kopytoff's concept of the\ud singularization of commodities is built upon to show how objects once singularized\ud can become tools in the reflexive project of the self. These projects of the self shape\ud the culture biographies of Asian religious items. Within the debate of appropriation\ud versus diffusion, it was found that different degrees of singularization lead some\ud consumers to believe they themselves have the right to consume and sell these items,\ud but others do not. This thesis explores how Orientalism shapes American perceptions\ud of these items in spite of the positive image given to them