DOI
10.32436/2475-6423.1009
Abstract
This article examines three Catholic home shrines in a Dalit community in North Indian and argues that it is misleading to think that home shrines and other collections of material objects are somehow static conveyors of meaning. “Meaning” can mean many things or nothing at all, depending upon the terms we are using and the scholarly methods we deploy. The crucial aspect of Dalit Catholic home shrines is that they are literally open to interpretation and reinterpretation, to touching and being touched. Their significance—their meaning—depends not on decoding their structure or symbolic logic, but interacting with them as part of a larger network of human and material connections and interpenetrations.
Recommended Citation
Schmalz, Mathew
(2016)
"Dalit Catholic Home Shrines in a North Indian Village,"
Journal of Global Catholicism:
Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 4. p.85-103.
DOI: 10.32436/2475-6423.1009
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/jgc/vol1/iss1/4
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