In Chapter 7, McDannell discusses Mormon undergarments and their meaning to those who wear them. What is striking from the beginning is the secrecy that surrounds the garments and the associated rituals. Scholars find it difficult to research this topic since the church leaders tenaciously guard documents. McDannell does agree that “some of the blame for the continued misunderstanding of Mormonism must be placed squarely on church leaders’ shoulders”(199) and tries to approach the subject through interviews. So here I will pose a more methodological question:
1. What was gained by developing this section through interviews? And on the other hand, what was not included that might lead to a biased view of the meaning of the garments?
McDannell also shows us that the history of the garments includes masonic influences. She writes that “nineteenth century Mormon iconography was replete with Masonic symbls: the beehinve, the square and compass, the clasped hands, and the all-seeying eye”(203). The garments are also influenced by folk magic and Judaism. It is interesting that Mormons now try to put distance between those influences; McDannell argues that “some Mormons may have difficulty accepting the historian’s judgment that early Mormonism was influenced by Freemasonry and folk magic”(203). As a second question:
2. What are some possible explanations for the distance being placed between the origins of the garments and current Mormon perceptions?
McDannell shows us that the practice of wearing the garments is a consequence on Mormonism’s focus on behavior. So along with “food and beverage restrictions, pre-marital sexual abstinence, and tithing”(205) wearing of the garments is a religious behavior that is taken very seriously. She sets up the garment’s importance within the insider/outsider framework that many minority communities find themselves within. If we think back to the picture described by Orsi, where Italians within the community would separate the Catholicism of the institutional church and the communal religion by celebrating the festa while avoiding the church services themselves, there seems to be a similar method working here. McDannell makes it clear that “Garments are private statements of communal affiliation, not public ones”(206) and that “wearing garments links them to the groupd, even if not to institutionalized beliefs”(207). So one might have mixed feelings about certain specifics regarding the church but will still wear the garments to signal their belonging to the community. And as Catholics might get upset at certain saints when they failed to live up to their end of the celestial transaction, it is interesting to see a case where a Mormon decided not to wear his garments saying “I’ve been terribly betrayed and rejected. . . I felt like I deserved better because of my previous actions”(208).
3. For the last question, I couldn’t help thinking that Anderson’s concept of the imagined community might work regarding the wearing of garments by Mormons. So do you think that this concept works here? Also, consider the implications of the garments being worn under the clothes as a private act.
The more I read about the religious experiences of men and women both in America and elsewhere, the more I become educated about the various means, tools, artifacts, dress and dietary habits people use to create and establish specific rituals, traditions and a contrived self image associated with their faith and beliefs. Obviously this is not something new as from times immemorial men and women have tried to set apart the worship and ceremonial occasions from their daily routine and keep the sacred separate from the profane. However, with popular religious practices spreading in a free for all environment, I am not surprised at all that preachers and activists of the Salvation Army and others adopted clothing that marked them as a group and gave them a distinct identity. That the Mormons adopted specific garments as a way of keeping the body holy and immune from the environment surrounding them seems to me as more symbolic gesture at first that became like other such habits engrained in the daily life of the faithful. For example , the garments that priests wear for saying mass in the Orthodox and Catholic faiths of Christianity ( in all their Eastern and Western variations) are infused with elaborate symbolisms that link these Christian Churches to Christ and his suffering. Garments, artifacts, icons, specific dietary habits therefore are part of the total package that comes with faith and religion, some of it I guess with dubious value except to those who find a meaning in them.
Ovsep Melkonian
November 5th, 2007