Mall as Sacred Space Jon

¶ … Mall as Sacred Space Jon Pahl's the Mall as Sacred Space Spirituality and Culture Since the earliest human civilizations formed, people groups have relied upon rituals, ceremonies, and sacred places in order to fulfill their basic spiritual needs. The present-day Western civilization is no different, but identifying the modern, Western rituals, ceremonies, and scared places can be difficult. For some, traditional realizations of the sacred are still primary -- as they attend religious services, visit cathedrals, and share in rites such as baptism for spiritual fulfillment.

Others have found a new realization of the sacred in nature or philosophical thought. Still others find their fulfillment in the mall. In his article, "The Mall as Sacred Space," Jon Pahl argues that the mall incorporates several modes of religious symbolism into its commercial structure, in addition to offering a place where "all the people come together -- rich and poor, old and young, black and white" (Pahl 463). Thus, Pahl argues that the mall is a sacred space. Phal formulates this argument through exploring three venues.

He argues that symbols such as water, light, vegetation, and advertisements are used in order to promote the mall's commercial message. Indeed, Pahl goes so far as to suggest the spiritual symbols used in the mall "disorient us by using natural and religious symbols and spatial patterns in an enclosed indoor setting, and then reorient us toward one another of the purveyors of goods" (464).

Thus, Pahl's ultimate claim is that the mall is seen as a sacred space in Western culture, a dangerous distraction that keeps Westerners from thinking about "our deepest personal, moral, or political feelings" (Pahl 467) but a spiritual distraction, nonetheless. While Pahl's argument of the mall scratches the surface of an intriguing cultural observation, it falls short in that it does not analyze the importance of the mall as a sacred space in the eyes of today's Westerners.

Although be begins by allowing another author's ethos to impact the validity of his argument, Pahl's initial observation is both unique and intriguing. Pahl's assessment that malls "succeed admirably in drawing visitors like moths to a candle," certainly identifies a pervasive trend in Western culture (465), one that is not explored greatly in the popular literature.

Of course, a great deal of literature deals with the commercialization of society in the Western culture, but Pahl's identification of the specific role played by mall's intrigues members of this culture, as they realize the stark importance of malls in society. Like the community centers, libraries, and churches of communities, malls have become icons where parents allow their children to socialize, meetings are held, and important cultural rituals (such as shopping) take place.

Today, malls are homes not only to stores and restaurants, but they also often house churches, attempting to capitalize on some of the spirituality that Pahl argues the mall provides. Further, Pahl's depiction of the mall's sacred symbols -- water and light, vegetation, and "words that promise us unity, devotion, love, happiness, and other phenomenon that were once the benefits of traditional religious practices" -- presents a truly unique and important insight into the Western way.

But where Pahl falls short is his inability to continue this argument into a piece of social commentary that benefits the anthropologically minded reader. In other words, Pahl makes his observations regarding the importance of the mall as sacred space, supports them through a list of sacred symbols employed by the malls, and then merely gives a short paragraph-long explanation of why the mall fails to meet its spiritual promise.

Incredibly, he manages to leave out the sections in which he analyzes the impact of the mall's being a sacred space on Western society, as well as its cultural implications. That the modern, Western society has adopted the mall as one of its sacred places, a venue in which its ceremonies are held, is of remarkable significance.

The incidence suggests not that the mall has used spiritual imagery to fool shoppers into joining a wayward allegiance of the church of commercialism, but instead that the mall reflects the changing values of society. The economy, commercialism, and the perfect-body mentality that Pahl argues the mall promotes for women have become a part of the new culture. The mall, then, is this culture's synagogue and holy temple.

Although, as Pahl argues, the promises that the mall offers end up being as unfulfilling as the promises that many religions extend, he fails to recognize that --.