Framing Sacred Places and Possessions

Over the past two decades there has been a growing realization of the sacred and ritual underpinnings of many aspects of consumer behavior (Arnould et al., 1999; Belk et al., 1989; Muniz and Schau, 2005). Apart from illumi- nating the presence of the sacred beyond the confines of formal religions, these studies have also shown how the sacred can be experienced in places as well as in objects and artefacts (Forbes and Mahan, 2005).