This document discusses categories of sacred spaces identified by scholars Gulliford and DeLoria, ranging from places associated with emergence and migration to sites representing interactions between humans and the divine. It then provides examples of American sacred sites that correspond to these categories, such as burial sites like the Normandy American Cemetery, and places where historical figures are venerated like the Lincoln Memorial. The document suggests the United States has its own set of defining national narratives centered around sacred sites.

1. Sacred Spaces

2. Sacred Spaces
 Scholars typically identify sacred places on a
continuum, ranging from an earthly place of
importance to a site associated with divinity.

3. Sacred Spaces
Categories
 Gulliford’s Nine Categories:
1. Sites associated with
emergence and migration
2. Trails and pilgrimage routes
3. Sites essential to cultural
survival
4. Altars
5. Vision quest sites
6. Ceremonial dance sites
7. Ancestral ruins
8. Petroglyphs and pictographs
9. Burial or massacre sites

4. Sacred Spaces
Categories
 DeLoria’s Four Categories:
1. Entirely human agency
2. Interaction between
human and divine
3. Higher powers fully reveal
themselves to people
4. Sites representing present-
day interactions between
the human and spiritual
realms

5. American Sacred Spaces
 The United States has its own set of
defining national narratives that
correspond to these categories.

6. American Sacred Spaces
 For example, there is a powerful scene in the movie
Saving Private Ryan, where the older Ryan makes a
pilgrimage to the American Cemetery at Normandy.
(Burial Site/Human Agency)

7. American Sacred Spaces
Certain historical figures
are sometimes raised to “divinity.”
 A fresco called The
Apotheosis of George
Washington occupies
the dome at the U.S.
Capitol Building.
(Apotheosis = becoming a god)

8. American Sacred Spaces
 Veneration of Washington reached
its height during the 19th century.
 In the 1860s, Abraham Lincoln
emerged as a new figure endowed
with some devotional attributes
once held by Washington alone.
 Washington, as the Father of the
country, symbolized the
emergence of the United States.
 Lincoln came to symbolize the
unity of its people.

9. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ Gettysburg Battlefield:
Gettysburg veterans at the battle’s 50th anniversary

10. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ Jamestown, Plymouth Colony
(places of emergence and migration)

11. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ Pearl Harbor Memorial
(places essential to cultural survival)

12. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ Independence Hall, Promontory Summit
(sacred sites of human agency)

13. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial
(interaction between human and "divine")

14. American Sacred Spaces
 Sites in the American sacred narrative:
◦ World Trade Center Memorial
(sacred sites related to contemporary events)

15. Sacred Spaces - Conferences
 In the conference area please respond to
the following questions:
◦ What makes a place sacred?
◦ What functions to sacred places serve?
◦ How do cultural artifacts relate to sacred
places?
◦ What is the relationship between myth and
truth?