Serpents, Sainthood, and Celebrity: Symbolic and Ritual Tension in Appalachian Pentecostal Snake Handling.

From: Journal of Religion and Popular Culture | Date: September 22, 2007| Author: | Copyright information

Keith G. Tidball and Chris Toumey

Abstract

Intense media coverage of Appalachian Pentecostal-Holiness serpent handling sometimes causes a switch in signifier/signified relationships. The snakes used symbolically in this practice are grounded less in traditional religious meaning, and more in a certain recent secular meaning: from signifying faith in the Holy Spirit to indicating the value of celebrity status. This phenomenon is analyzed in a framework of theories about symbols and rituals, and is then described in a series of ethnographic observations at a ...

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