Introduction: A Landscape of Difference -- Faith and Works: A Historical Framework -- The Settlement Matrix: Towns and Temples -- According to Need: Family Stewardships and the Distribution of Resources -- Frontier Fashion: Domestic Architecture and Individual Display -- Polygamy and Patriarchy: Women in the Landscape -- Business as Usual: The Americanization of the Mormon Main Street -- Meetinghouses: The Search for Mormon Identity -- Mansion on the Hill: The Temple as Ritual Space -- Conclusion: The Enduring Zion
Summary:
Focusing on a network of small towns in Utah, Thomas Carter explores the key elements of the Mormon cultural landscape: town planning, residences (including polygamous houses), stores and other nonreligious buildings, meetinghouses, and temples. Zion, Carter demonstrates, is an evolving entity, reflecting the church's shift from group-oriented millenarian goals to more individualized endeavors centered on personal salvation and exaltation, and displaying a unique blending of sacred and secular spaces.
