Truth-Spots: How Places Make People Believe

215 Pages·2018·1.184 MB·English

by  Thomas F. Gieryn

Truth- Spots

Truth- Spots
How Places Make People Believe
.
thomas f gieryn
The University of Chicago Press ó Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2018 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations in
critical articles and reviews. For more information,
contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2018
Printed in the United States of America
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 56195- 0 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 56200- 1 (e- book)
doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago
/9780226562001.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gieryn, Thomas F., author.
Title: Truth-spots : how places make people believe /
Thomas F. Gieryn.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of
Chicago Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical
references.
Identifiers: lccn 2017044664 | isbn 9780226561950
(cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226562001 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Heritage tourism. | Tourism—Social
aspects. | Tourism—Anthropological aspects. | Culture
and tourism.
Classification: lcc g156.5.h47 g54 2018 |
ddc 306.4/819—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044664
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
For my desk, office, study, atelier
Ballantine Hall 754
Indiana University
Bloomington

Contents
1 Oracular Tourism 1
2 Ground- Truthing at Walden Pond 20
3 Linnaeus’s Credibilizing Transit 35
4 Ford’s Potemkin Villages 53
5 Trapdoor to the Transcendent 74
6 The Whole Truth and Nothing But 100
7 Obama’s Three Birthplaces 122
8 Ultra Clean Lab 148
Coda 171
Notes 179

1
Oracular Tourism
Being shown how to locate, to place, any account is what does most toward
making us believe it, not merely allowing us to, may the account be the facts
or a lie.
«eudora welty1»
Not long ago, I visited the oracle at Delphi, in Greece, to con-
sult with the Pythia about my prospects for writing a book on
how places lend credibility and legitimacy to beliefs and claims.
Following custom, I first cleansed myself in waters gushing from
the Castalian Spring, beneath the “shining ones” (Phaedriades) on
Mount Parnassus. I climbed the Sacred Way, passing by treasur-
ies and monuments built by the great city- states (Athens, Sparta,
Corinth, and Thebes) to recognize the prophecies they received,
and with their gratitude. I arrived at the Temple of Apollo, and
waited my turn— as a non- Greek, at the end of a long line. At
last, there was the Pythia before me, seated on her tripod, hold-
ing laurel leaves and sacred water, with the omphalos nearby and
also the two golden eagles of Zeus— intoxicating vapors ema-
nated from a little fissure at her feet. I put my money down, and a
sacrificial cake, which was promptly burned on the altar.
I got no immediate response from the oracle, and sensing that
the priestess might need a little background, I recited the passage