ABSTRACT
How are relationships to the past cultivated? What strategies and resources are marshaled in the production of historicity? And, what is ideologically and materially at stake as antagonistic social actors contentiously compete to define the past? In this chapter, I explore these questions from the ethnographic vantage point of a creationist ministry in the United States and their work of religious publicity in the form of “museum” and “theme park” tourist attractions. In particular, I draw from fieldwork with the ministry’s core design team and their creative labor to produce the creationist past in these venues. I argue that the team and the ministry appeal to the power of modern entertainment to express this vision of the past and, ultimately, to stake their bid for cultural legitimacy and authority.
