{"id":2452783,"date":"2020-01-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318496"},"modified":"2020-01-01T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-01T12:00:00","slug":"the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Right to Shrine\u201d: Yale student publishes academic article about Aspen-Snowmass shrines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.4556407447974\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-318496-73\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun | Pictures commemorating famous professional golfers decorate the Golf Shrine at Snowmass Ski Area on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.47668393782383\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.5336787564767\">\n<p><strong>Pictures commemorating famous professional golfers decorate the Golf Shrine at Snowmass Ski Area on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1024x682.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1024x682.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Pictures commemorating famous professional golfers decorate the Golf Shrine at Snowmass Ski Area on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1-683x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.47486033519553\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.4972067039106\">\n<p><strong>Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1-683x1024.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1-683x1024.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-1-683x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-2-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass | Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.47383720930233\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.4767441860465\">\n<p><strong>Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-2-1024x682.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-2-1024x682.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-2-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-3-683x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun | Golf balls hang on a tree in the Golf Shrine on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.47222222222222\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.4444444444444\">\n<p><strong>Golf balls hang on a tree in the Golf Shrine on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-3-683x1024.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-3-683x1024.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-3-683x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Golf balls hang on a tree in the Golf Shrine on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-4-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-4-682x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun | Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.47443181818182\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9.4886363636364\">\n<p><strong>Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-4-682x1024.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-4-682x1024.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/shrines-svs-010120-1-4-682x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On a snowy, mid-December morning at Snowmass Ski Area, part-time resident David Wood made a few turns down the mountain then cut over into the trees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It was a day of perpetual refills, but Wood wasn\u2019t in the small stand for the powder. He was in it for the shrines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">From a tree decorated with laminated photos of Frank Sinatra, to a few trees with images commemorating dead cats, to nearly a dozen trees dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson and his gonzo journalism, Wood toured a handful of the unique, local- and visitor-made memorials hidden at the ski area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For more than 20 years, Wood has sought out the dozens of shrines across the Aspen-Snowmass ski areas paying tribute to dead celebrities and locals, with a few exceptions. In 2011, he published \u201cSanctuaries in the Snow,\u201d <a id=\"N0x14f11c0N0x16167f0:N0x14f11c0N0x146b118\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/book-shares-secrets-of-aspens-ski-area-shrines\/\">a book documenting the shrines but leaving their locations a mystery<\/a>, and keeps an up-to-date Facebook page for the memorials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Most locals and Aspen area visitors have visited a shrine, or at least know they exist, and have for over four decades, ever since the Elvis Presley shrine was believed to be the first created in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But last May, a former Aspen Skiing Co. employee took the Aspen-Snowmass shrines to another level; she published an academic paper about them in the Material Religion journal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe article was written with local Aspen people in mind but also the academic community,\u201d said Cody Musselman, a doctoral candidate in religious studies at Yale University who wrote <a id=\"N0x14f11c0N0x1616850:N0x14f11c0N0x146b358\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/17432200.2019.1603069\">\u201cThe Right to Shrine: Global Celebrity, Colonial Logics and Local Knowledge in Aspen\u2019s Mountainside Memories.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI guess I was hoping with the article that scholars of religion would start looking at playful things in a more serious way, and see that something like the Aspen shrines could be deserving of a deeper analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Musselman\u2019s interest in the Aspen-Snowmass shrines dates back to the 2011-12 winter season when she was working as a Skico employee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A recent college graduate taking a break from school before pursuing a graduate degree in religious studies, Musselman said she learned of the shrines soon after moving to the Aspen area and was gifted Wood\u2019s \u201cSanctuaries in the Snow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After using the small book as a guide to finding the ski areas\u2019 shrines on her own, Musselman started thinking about them as a unique local secret that helped create a sense of community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI was interested in how locals make a space their own because I had this strange fear of not being a local but not really being a tourist. \u2026 I sort of floated in for a year and floated out, making me a stranger but a more permanent one in a way,\u201d Musselman explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWith the shrines, you have visitors and locals who come to make them, so I just found it to be an interesting interplay between visitors and locals and how that was playing out through these material objects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Musselman said she followed Woods\u2019 Facebook page for the Aspen-Snowmass shrines after she left Colorado to pursue religious studies at Yale University. Although she kept up with the shrines, she said she didn\u2019t think about analyzing them academically until she took a material religion course her first semester.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Musselman, material religion is a broad term used to describe the ways in which material objects factor into religious practices, and how material environments can determine religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In her May paper, she explores the ways in which the Aspen-Snowmass shrines serve as examples of material religion, and how they may seem innocent but also align with the more complex space-making practices of outdoor alpine culture settler-colonialism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cBy looking at the shrines as spatial products of a neoliberal global economy, we may come to better understand how materiality creates claims to space,\u201d Musselman writes in the article. \u201cIn this capacity, the shrines make visible the continuity of settler-colonial logics that facilitate practices of territorial entitlement and accumulation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Musselman continues to look at how the Aspen-Snowmass shrines create and assert a local presence and culture, which Aspenites can control access to by \u201ccreating and policing the knowledge of the shrines\u2019 locations\u201d; contribute to the idea that colonialism is an ongoing process and doesn\u2019t always operate through explicit intentions, as the shrines project territorial entitlement whether it be known to their creators; parallel the incomplete history of Aspen that is circulated by locals and visitors, which \u201cis based on an imaged past in service of the present,\u201d leaving out much of the historic Native American struggle; and mark alternative rulemaking in the rest of her article.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe emphasis on locally built shrines guarded by locals distracts us from observing the shrines as spatial making projects of individuals who are not merely homespun locals fighting for their land, but members of a globally mobile elite population that marks the land in particular ways to domesticate it for their use,\u201d the article\u2019s conclusion states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Wood said he contributed a few photos and pieces of information for Musselman\u2019s article, and found it interesting that she was able look at the shrines through an academic, religious studies lens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI think it is a brilliant and profound article that goes far beyond what the average person thinks of the Aspen shrines, and makes statements and asks questions about the shrines in such a way that most people would never think of, and from a point of view that only a doctoral candidate in religious studies and a person who studies American religious history would have,\u201d Wood said via email.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Through her article, Musselman said she aimed to provoke thought, not criticize the Aspen-Snowmass shrines or shrine making practices. She said she hopes the shrine tradition continues in Aspen-Snowmass for decades to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But who knows what\u2019s in store for the Aspen-Snowmass shrines in 2020. Most have withstood the test of time, more may be made and all are being recognized in the religious academic sphere with the help of Wood\u2019s \u201cSanctuaries in the Snow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI think we can all be pressed to be critical and analytical about the world around us,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cThe Aspen ski area is unique in its embrace of the shrines and I applaud David Wood for recognizing that and thinking we should have a catalog of it and know who and how these shrines were made over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:mvincent@aspentimes.com\">mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/the-right-to-shrine-yale-student-publishes-academic-article-about-aspen-snowmass-shrines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pictures commemorating famous professional golfers decorate the Golf Shrine at Snowmass Ski Area on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun Buy Photo Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson on Snowmass Mountain on Friday, December 27, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/Snowmass Sun)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Buy Photo Pictures decorate a shrine dedicated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 23:23:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}