“A sacred place is not merely a meaningful place; it is a powerful place because it is appropriated, possessed, and owned….Sacred space is inevitably contested space, a site of negotiated contests over the legitimate ownership of sacred symbols”
-David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal, American Sacred Space
I found this quote while reading Landscapes of the Sacred. I had just thought of a sacred place as a place that is meaningful to different people. After reading this quote I quickly realized that sacred places are more than meaningful places. Sacred places are powerful because of the importance of them to people. People who believe a place to be sacred feel like they are part of that place or like they are part owner of that place. I agree with the second part of the quote when it says, “sacred space is inevitably contested space.” To me that says a sacred place is a place people fight over. I believe for a place to be sacred it has to be more than meaningful and people have to be willing to fight to protect that same place.
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