{"product_id":"lifeblood-of-the-parish-9781479872244","title":"Lifeblood of the Parish","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA New York City ethnography that explores men''s unique approaches to Catholic devotion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery Saturday, and sometimes on weekday evenings, a group of men in old clothes can be found in the basement of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each year the parish hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and San Paolino di Nola. Its crowning event is the Dance of the Giglio, where the men lift a seventy-foot tall, four-ton tower through the streets, bearing its weight on their shoulders.\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on six years of research, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada reveals the making of this Italian American tower, as the men work year-round to prepare for the Feast. She argues that by paying attention to this behind-the-scenes activity, largely overlooked devotional practices shed new light on how men embody and enact their religiosity in sometimes unexpected ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e evocatively and accessibly presents the sensory and \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOffers readers a look into a complicated history between various cultures and communities, one collectively built up over decades and, quite literally, on the shoulders of men. Maldonado-Estrada complicates what masculinity looks like in the Catholic Church, marking it as a process that occurs over years of piety, devotion, but above all work. * National Catholic Reporter *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e is a thoroughly researched, impressively crafted, and beautifully written contribution to the study of religious practice. Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada takes us into the behind-the-scenes places where it becomes possible to understand the relationships of masculinity, ethnicity, and Catholic devotion in new ways. I enthusiastically recommend it to urban sociologists and anthropologists as well as to scholars of religion. -- Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully crafted ethnography of men’s devotions, the power of place, and the bonds of friendship. This is, without a doubt, the best study of men and religion I’ve ever read. Dr. Maldonado-Estrada has set a very high bar for scholars of religion, and I thank her for this exceptional book. -- Kristy Nabhan-Warren, author of The Virgin of El Barrio\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada presents a rich ethnography of Catholic men in Brooklyn crafting their masculinity in tattoos, costumed re-enactments, and the production of devotional artifacts. Devotion, she persuasively argues, is not just prayer and affection for the saints. It is the very production of masculinity. A remarkable contribution to the study of lived religion and its material culture, this book shows how fundamental gender, ethnicity, and community are to understanding religion as material practice. -- David Morgan, Duke University\u003cbr\u003eIn this deeply immersive ethnography, Maldonado-Estrada shows how the men of Italian Williamsburg create and perform themselves \u003ci\u003eas\u003c\/i\u003e men in their fierce devotion to each other, to the neighborhood, and especially to the work of staging of the annual feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For all its joyful masculine exuberance, Maldonado-Estrada is unflinching in her treatment of the event’s racist undertow and homophobia, its exclusion of women, and its ugliness towards upper-middle class newcomers to Brooklyn. There is no better book about the fate of Italian American working-class masculinity and religion in the neoliberal fever dream that is New York City today than \u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e. This is a major contribution to the literature of contemporary urban religion. -- Robert A. Orsi, author of The Madonna of 115th Street\u003cbr\u003eThe subtitle of \u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e seems straightforward enough, but Maldonado-Estrada’s sensually sharp observations prove that there’s more at stake than a certain demographic population. In contrast to secularization theories and facile equations of women and devotion, Maldonado-Estrada finds masculine devotion at its most vigorous in basements and pizzerias, with liquor and cigars, tattoos and strong arms, against the background of gentrification and immigration. -- S. Brent Plate, author of A History of Religion in 5 1\/2 Objects\u003cbr\u003eChapter-by-chapter the author’s descriptive language makes readers feel as though they are at the places under study, observing the conspicuous aspects of religion and newly considering the places where religion may be found…By the end of the book, readers should be convinced that religion is not merely found but is actually collectively forged in such spaces and represented on inked bodies and in the conviction with which collective stories of the neighborhood are told. * American Religion *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e turns on its head our understanding of Catholic devotionalism among Italian Americans and among Catholics in the United States more generally…It is difficult to imagine a list of must-read books about Italian American Catholics that does not include \u003ci\u003eLifeblood of the Parish\u003c\/i\u003e. * Italian American Review *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409086062935,"sku":"9781479872244","price":66.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781479872244.jpg?v=1730505391","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/lifeblood-of-the-parish-9781479872244","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}