Awkward Objects: Relics, the Making of Religious Meaning, and The
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Awkward Objects: Relics, the Making of Religious Meaning, and the Limits of Control in the Information Age Jan W Geisbusch University College London Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Anthropology. 15 September 2008 UMI Number: U591518 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U591518 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Declaration of authorship: I, Jan W Geisbusch, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signature: London, 15.09.2008 Acknowledgments A thesis involving several years of research will always be indebted to the input and advise of numerous people, not all of whom the author will be able to recall. However, my thanks must go, firstly, to my supervisor, Prof Michael Rowlands, who patiently and smoothly steered the thesis round a fair few cliffs, and, secondly, to my informants in Rome and on the Internet. Research was made possible by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Abstract The thesis aims to recover relics - i.e. the bodily remains of the saints in the Roman-Catholic tradition - as a neglected object category within the study of material religion. In doing so, it seeks to widen the understanding of the materiality of religious practice, complementing more traditional approaches that have focused on religion as primarily a phenomenon of belief, ritual or written discourse. To achieve this aim the thesis examines the continuing conditions of the production, authentification, circulation and function of relics at the intersection of institutional and private contexts. Special emphasis is laid on the modes of abduction and appropriation that mediate between these contexts, in particular their more controversial aspects involving the use of modem electronic media such as commercial websites like eBay, the Internet auction house The first section of the thesis charts how relics are produced within the institutional setting of ecclesiastical authorities and how they derive potency, authority, in short: significance, from the inscription within these settings, localized at Rome and the Vatican as both, objective and imaginary spaces; and how, often against the resistance of Church authorities, relics are alienated from these settings through more or less legitimate channels such as street markets, the trade in antiques and especially eBay, the Internet auction site, which appears as an arena on constructing and contesting religious significance through sacred objects. The second section then looks in more detail at the specific meanings that individual faithful invest in relics, especially when seen before a backdrop of larger controversies about popular and official piety, Catholic tradition(alism) and innovation following the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), a discussion that, within the social sciences, also involves debates on the understanding of religion and modernity, on memory, value and values, materiality and spirituality. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction: Excavating the Subject 1 II. History 8 i. Demarcations: the logics of immanence and transcendence 8 ii. Theology and institutional practice 18 III. Place 33 i. Emplacing relics 33 ii. Sacred space and the anthropology of pilgrimage 40 iii. Difference and movement 55 IV. Rome 58 i. Notes on methodology 58 ii. Material forms of devotion in local practice 65 iii. Rome as a 'relic-scape' 73 iv. Alienable possessions 91 V. Networks 100 i. Online religion, online Catholicism 100 ii. eBay and the politics of nostalgia 106 iii. Performing authenticity 109 iv. Intervention 127 VI. Practice and Subversion 136 i. The absence of presence 136 ii. Memory, nostalgia, heritage 146 iii. Uses of the past, uses of the body I: institutional practice 157 iv. Uses of the past, uses of the body II: individual practice 161 v. Uses of the past, uses of the body III: relic ministries 169 vi. Crossed boundaries: re-cognition and alterity 177 VII. Value, Fetish, Agency 191 i. Dividing heaven and earth 191 ii. Bridging heaven and earth 198 VIII. Conclusion 210 IX. Glossary 213 X. References 215 I. Introduction: Excavating the Subject Early on a fine Sunday afternoon in Rome I am sitting in the stylish cafe of the Bramante cloisters, just round the comer from Piazza Navona. Quiet during the week, except for lunchtime, it is a fairly busy place on weekends, though frequented mostly by Romans and a few ex-pats, too hidden as it is for the tourist crowds. Renaissance arcades, a few funerary monuments to sixteenth-century bishops, lintels with the coat of arms of the architect's patron, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa (d. 1511), roof gardens looking in from neighbouring buildings, bright blue skies - a scene that I have come to feel as 'typically Roman', a long history very much alive in a bustling present (the chiostro del Bramante also houses a modem art gallery), combined with ubiquitous ecclesiastical connections. In front of me on my table I have a reliquary, properly speaking a theca, a relic locket. A bit smaller than half my palm, the usual oval shape, made of brass that has darkened over time. What time? Judging by its style, I would date it between 1800 and 1850. It is my latest acquisition, bought forty minutes earlier in Porta Portese, Rome's largest and busiest street market. It cost a bit more than I really felt comfortable with, but at the same time I knew I was getting a good deal. It would have cost twice as much if I had bought it on eBay. Just a pity that the threads that are supposed to fasten the back of the reliquary have come apart, so there is a chance that it has been opened and the relics been tampered with, or giving me the possibility to tamper with them, which I certainly will not do. Still, the wax seal that is applied over the knot of the threads is intact - a nice, clear strike, showing a bishop's coat of arms: six tassels on each side decorate the galero, the flat, wide-brimmed ecclesiastical hat that is part of the heraldry of Roman-Catholic prelates. The shield has the shape of a horse's face armour, often used by Italian clergy; it is underlaid by a Maltese cross, indicating that the bishop was also a Knight of Malta or had otherwise received an award within the order. The shield shows an eagle or falcon looking right. Since the threads are broken, the card-board, covered with the usual red silk, onto which the relics are fixed, sits a bit wobbly within the theca, so someone has bolstered it with some bits of paper. They look yellow, very thin and brittle - a good sign, if the paper is as old as it appears: if the theca has been interfered with it happened a long time ago, bestowing its own historical value on a case of fakery or a simple mishap. But 1 then, threads can also wear out naturally, scraped by the rim of the cap if the back of the relic is opened too often. At any rate, the relics look fine to me, no loose bits as far as I can see - if it is possible to say very much about them at all. There are 18 of them in the locket, no less. They are just tiny specks of matter, barely identifiable; some, I can tell, are particles of fabric, others may be stone or bone, dust or ashes, partly merging with the dots of glue that hold them in place. Of two or three I am not sure whether I actually see them at all or whether it is simply the glue that I am looking at. As a specimen of craftsmanship the theca is a bit botched. I could say craftsw’omtf«ship, given that many convents had - and have - a line in reliquary-making - 'nuns’ work', as it is sometimes called, or 'schdne Arbeiteri in German, literally meaning 'beautiful works'. But somehow the wonkiness of the design does not quite suggest the infinitely patient, meticulous hand of a female religious. Sister at the convent of Santa Lucia in Selci showed me some of the pieces she recently created. They were just the ordinary, mass- produced thecae that one finds in the shops around the Borgo Pio and Via dei Cestari, but skilfully embellished by her, the cedulae, the little labels that identify the relic, laser-printed (a bit prosaic perhaps, but far more legible), carefully cut out and carefully pasted, minute ornaments of metal foil, sequins and gold wire arranged around the relic. Still, in its own way the piece in front of me is rather a fine one. Eighteen relics, quite an exceptional number, axially arranged (if a bit askew), eight sit vertically in the centre, five on each side. The cedulae are handwritten, the black ink still unfaded, but the letters are scrawled. Some pieces that I have seen were miniature calligraphies, but not these ones. And as the lengths of the individual cedulae vary the general impression is untidy and crowded. Yet the top one reads 'Ex Spina Cor D.N.J.C.' - one of the common abbreviations in clerical Latin that any antiques dealers worth their salt, devotees and collectors alike will spot from a mile away: 'From the Thom of the Crown of Our Lord Jesus Christ'.