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Promoters used Native religious ceremonies to epitomize New Mexico early in the development of railway tourism in the 1890s.
Hopi Kachina dolls, Navajo Yei deities, and rituals like the Hopi Snake Dance became symbols for exotic events
tourists could see. Promoters superimposed images of these events on silver jewelry, inexpensive
mass-produced ceramics, and frightening photographic postcards. Automobile tourism simply further
sped-up the process of transforming sacred rituals into inexpensive, secular commodities.
During the Route 66 period, plastic Jesuses adorned the dashboards of cars, images of the saints were
painted on lowrider automobiles, and famous southwestern painters were themselves presented as
painted retablos. Route 66 was and isn't the only road to the sacrilegious. At sacred shrines and
famous churches worldwide you can buy souvenirs with images of Buddhas and Christ as well as
saints, angels, and other religious symbols. Invariably, aspects of these popular icons can be interpreted
positively or negatively.
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