Last year I purchased a bound volume of the 1949 issues of the missionary magazine of the Argentine and Uruguayan missions, El Mensajero Deseret, which I found in the basement of Sam Weller‘s in Salt Lake City. I had hoped that I might find there some articles originally written in Spanish by local members (not missionaries), and that I might there discover something of their perspective at the time. Unfortunately, my (still) somewhat cursory review, while it found many interesting articles, including one written by my grandfather that my family didn’t know about, failed to find any articles by local members and few originally written in Spanish.
I’m not sure how different things are today. Mission magazines like El Mensajero Deseret, which were meant for all members in the mission (not just the missionaries), have been replaced by the Church’s international magazine (in Spanish, La Liahona), and that magazine is largely a translation from English.
As a result of examples like this, I think its easy to assume that no Mormon cultural works are being produced outside of the English-speaking areas of the Church. In a comment to my post last week about What Should Mormons Know About Mormon Culture?, Anneke wrote:
“I’m uncomfortable with any attempt to define “Mormon Culture” that then limits that culture to “Anglophone Mormon Culture.” I realize that most of the time English is all we’ve got”¦”
I am also uncomfortable about this — but its hard for most of us, English-speaking residents of the US generally, to know much about what is being produced in Mexico or in France or Brazil or Japan. Its not like there are clear paths for getting materials from these places to the Mormon market in the US! I suspect that not a lot is being produced, given the low density of LDS Church members from each other in other countries, the lack of a market or way to distribute cultural works, and the near worship that foreign LDS Church members sometimes have for the Church in the U.S.
So, hoping that those who read this will add the works they know about, here’s a list of some of the works I know or have heard of. I’m sure there are plenty of others:
[Please don’t include translations from English of any kind. Scriptures, hymnals and other works normally used in worship services are also usually off topic for this post. Works can be in any cultural field or of interest to Mormon culture in any way. Any work by, for or about Mormons that is not anti-Mormon in character (i.e., written to persuade others to leave the LDS Church or to keep them from listening to LDS missionaries), is welcome.]
Books
In Spanish:
- La puerta azul: o, Georgina Altamirano, la venezolana que se convirtioÌ en mormona
by Josefina Febres Cordero (1976 – English translation 1979). An unusual novel by a Colombian LDS convert, interesting for its use of Colombian literary style. - El plan de salvacion by Genevieve De Hoyos; Arturo De Hoyos (1986). A doctrinal work by longstanding proponents of Spanish-language Mormon culture.
- El lamanita mestizo by Arturo De Hoyos (1996).A doctrinal work by longstanding proponents of Spanish-language Mormon culture.
- La mujer mormona by Arturo De Hoyos (1998).A doctrinal work by longstanding proponents of Spanish-language Mormon culture.
- Escalando el Monte a la Exaltación by Genevieve de Hoyos (2002).A doctrinal work by longstanding proponents of Spanish-language Mormon culture.
- Sixta MartÃnez: Un testimonio vivente by El Museu de la Historia del Mormonismo en Mexico (2002). A personal testimony of a long-standing Church member in Mexico.
- Misterios mormones by Arturo De Hoyos (2003). A doctrinal work by longstanding proponents of Spanish-language Mormon culture.
- La iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias y las convenciones lamanitas by Fernando Rogelio Gomez Paez (2004). A history of the little-known schism by 2/3rds of Mexican members of the Church.
In Portuguese:
- Domingos Vera Cruz by Glauco Ortolano (2000). A well-received literary novel by a Brazilian LDS Church member.
- A Fé Mórmon by I. B. Irineu (2002). A straightforward presentation of Mormon beliefs
In French:
- MeÌmoires d’un Mormon by Louis A. Bertrand (1862). Autobiographical description of Mormonism by one of France’s earliest LDS Church members.
- Quand Dieu Se Fit Americain by Marc Chadourne (1950). A sympathetic look at Mormonism by an important and popular French writer, following three years as a visiting professor at Utah State University.
- Louis Auguste Bertrand (1808-1875), Journaliste socialiste et Pionnier mormon by Christian Euvrard (2001). A biography of early LDS Church member Bertrand written by a French member.
Art
- The book Images of Faith, a kind of historical survey of LDS art from the collection of the Church Museum includes a number of works from around the world, generally folk art with Mormon themes done recently.
Music
- In the comment by Anneke that I mentioned above, she indicates that a local Japanese woman in Yokohama produced a music CD of original Mormon songs.
- Brazilian Soprano Liriel Domiciano, who sang in General Conference with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2004 should probably be mentioned here.
I should emphasize that the above list isn’t complete in any sense — its just the items I came up with off the top of my head. I hope it can serve as a starting point for a more complete list.
A Motley Vision 
Lino Brocka’s titles in Filipino Film, and I know that there is a Russian “Mormon” film that was just made last year, though I haven’t seen it. (I only know about it from the World Wide Report from the Oct Conference).
I guess I should also add that Walter Whipple, a Professor at BYU has commissioned several wood carvings from the most important Polish ‘folk’ sculptor whose last name is ‘Sledz,’ I believe. the pieces mainly depict biblical events, but the man recently finished 6 events from the Book of Mormon. They’re quite amazing. Some where on display at the BYU MOA when I worked there and they have toured all over the US.
Don’t know if that counts since the artist isn’t a Member, but he’s read the Book of Mormon and reacted.
There are also Wood sculptors in my Branch now (in Poland), but they admit that it is rather provincial.
Thanks, Trevor.
I’d forgotten Lino Brocka — he has to be one of the most important non-English Mormon artists. It is a shame that he has had almost no cultural impact in the US, let alone among Mormons. The problem is that his films are essentially unavailable in the US.
You wrote:
“Don’t know if that counts since the artist isn’t a Member, but he’s read the Book of Mormon and reacted.”
At least technically, it does count. I said “Any work by, for or about Mormons that is not anti-Mormon in character” and it sounds like Sledz’ Book of Mormon work qualifies.
I also think we should include the wood sculptors in your branch. If provincial was a qualification, we’d have to throw out the vast majority of Mormon cultural output — its all provincial! [In fact, I’m not sure how you can create works for a subculture and not be provincial.]
One book you’ve left off is Agricol Lozano’s Historia del Mormonismo en Mexico
Nestor Curbelo has written several books on the history of the church in Argentina and Uruguay. He also has a website that was recently redone; unfortunately, not all the links work:
http://www.historiasud.com.ar//
The following is a link to an online history of the church in La Plata Argentina. Hugo Olaiz, a native Argentine who is also a frequent contributor to Sunstone put it together:
http://www.bellota.org/
One more place you might want to try:
cumorah.org
It’s a blog run by believing LDS, mainly from Chile but they have posters and contributors from all over. They might be able to provide you with more examples.
The visual arts and maybe less so, music have a much easier and quicker time crossing Mormon cultural lines and gaining a world audience.. I believe this because you are not dealing with language barriers in those disciplines. Visual and many musical art forms are much easier to assimilate than literary art.
I’m a visual artist so I really can say much more about music but I will address the visual arts. The Museum of Church History and Art’s has brought to the public eye visual art about the Church from all over the world. We are now seeing much of that art published in the Ensign and Liahona magazines. The Museum has had a good influence in opening the doors for diverse expressions of the Gospel and our history.
When I see artist David Linn’s contemporary handcart painting on the back of Ensign it gives me hope that more contemporary visions of the Church will make their way to the LDS viewing public. Of course this is still all centered in Salt Lake City which leads to the question of how to decentralize our cultural properties.
Here are some ideas:
1. Regional Art Centers with a gallery, performing arts facilities and visitor information. The centers would be located near our Temples world wide on the temple grounds. They would be run by cultural missionaries and feature work produced by regional members plus possible traveling art exhibits and performing arts productions
2. Church sponsored art, film, dance and music festivals and/or book fairs at a variety of locations. We could still have a potluck at these events.
3. Open for suggestions
Question:
!. Can members accept tithing paying for many of these facilities and activities?
2. Can cultural activities be justified as missionary work?
3. How else can the above ideas be financed?
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been dubbed America’s Choir. How do we expand this kind of recognition of other art forms? BYU produces many of these kind of activities but again they are driven by a Wasatch Front cultural mentality (now there’s a subject for a lively blog). I see signs of cultural change for the Church in the 21st century. Can we honor our past and bring the international art being produced today up to speed and create new audiences?
Kendall,
You’re right about Agricol Lozano’s book. I had somehow thought it was written first in English, but I’m probably confusing it with Lamond Tullis’ book with nearly the same title.
I hadn’t really included websites in my list, especially since so many foreign websites are simply derivative materials or translations from English. Nestor’s and Hugo’s websites are exceptions.
BUT, I don’t think Cumorah.org is an exception. Even the material originally in Spanish seems to come from Christian websites, from what I can tell. And I find it annoying that so much on the site is unauthorized digital copies or unauthorized translations from English. Can we really be promoting the Gospel or Mormon culture and violating the copyright law at the same time?
Larry,
Great ideas. You are certainly right that the visual arts and some music cross cultural boundaries much more easily.
I’ll have to pay more attention to the art in the Ensign and Liahona to try to see what you mean. From my perspective, the art on the covers seems more or less the same style — what I like to call idealized realism — the kind that makes those new to art say “It looks just like a photograph” as if that is always a good thing.
I am familiar with David Linn’s work, and I do like it very much — he is one I’d count as an exception to most of the art in the Ensign and Liahona (as I perceive them). So, if you have some examples to show me where I’m wrong, or what is unusual in this artwork, I’d love to know about them. [Having said that, I should mention that my tastes tend toward Modern and Post-Modern art much more than to what I see in the Ensign. Give me Wulf Barsch and Helaman Ferguson over Simon Dewey, Glen Hopkinson and Del Parson any day. I’d love to see a Wayne Thiebaud style take on sacrament trays or, dare I say it, a Mormon vision like Salvador Dali’s The Last Supper — a subject which I don’t think I’ve ever seen an LDS artist take on.]
As for your idea of Regional Art Centers, I’m fairly pessimistic. The closest example to this that I’ve seen is the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center, which has done all of what you suggest. I believe other Temple Visitors Centers have done similar things. My sense is, however, that the Church sees this as outside of its mission, and doesn’t provide much funding. It also tends to be quite traditional in style and require a clear gospel connection in subject matter.
Private centers loose these restrictions, but gain almost insurmountable funding problems. But even those aren’t impossible, as can be seen from the Museum of the History of Mormonism in Mexico (in Mexico City). I think I’ll have to wait until I retire to even consider starting such a center. The amount of work and difficulty raising funds is daunting.
Festivals and book fairs are also good ideas. I’ve been very impressed by the LDS Film Festival’s ability to keep going, and it could serve as a model for other festivals. What is needed is a successful model that local members can copy from at locations around the world.
I won’t try to answer your questions — I’m afraid that the issues are quite complicated, involving not only what is proper use of the Lord’s funds, but also tax issues.
And finally, I should mention that the Tabernacle Choir has itself been kind of an example to local Mormons, who have created local Choirs in (last I knew), Southern California, Arizona, Colorado, Washington D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that others exist, or that some of the above have folded. Examining how these groups have managed will probably give you something of a response to the ideas you present.
You are right that as the Church changes this century, we are bound to witness substantial changes in our culture, and incorporating internationally-produced art is clearly one of the challenges our culture will face.
Kent:
I really didn’t make myself clear; I’m not recommending the cumorah.org website per se, but rather putting it out there as a place where you might be able to ask about locally produced Mormon ‘culture’.
Kent,
Thank you for your response. You are correct, the art in Ensign is still very conservative. My point was that the artist now being show on the inside are from all over the world with some gospel principles being expressed in ethnic terms of the country of origin. Of course a lot more needs to happen in this regard for real change in Church culture identity.
I would love to see a Wulf Barsch piece on the front cover of Ensign. If that were to happening, I’m sure many members would start to wonder if the staff has broken the word of wisdom and started smoking the funny herb.
I just came across another item that should be on the list, the book “Volta ao Planeta Vida” (Return to the Planet Life) by Brazilian author Carlos Parrini. Parrini’s bio mentions that he served as an LDS missionary in his youth.
More information is available at::
http://cparrini.blogspot.com/
Sorry I haven’t had time to read & comment on this post until now… I just started grad school and it’s been killing all my free time. I’ll try to find any online references to the local musicians I knew in Yokohama… there was one sister specifically from Atsugi who’s recorded a couple CDs, I think… I’ll do some research and follow up.
Kent.
about cumorah.org, I am the owner. I’d like to clarify that for some little cirscunstance, the united states is not the world and indeed is an exception in some things, like, the laws about copyright and author rights. At diference of the US, in many other countries in the world (like canada, almost all south america and europe, and other places) is not an illegal (or in your words, a “violation of the law”) the sharing of copyrighted material if there is no order to make profit from it. Cumorah is a Chilean site, so, based in the Chilean laws, and our laws are different to the US laws, even more, almost all the rest of the world have similar copyright laws to the chileans to allow sharing things if there is no profit in between. If you see cumorah, you can not see any kind of Advertising, and there is not a coincidence. Before creating the page and share things I did read the chilean copyright laws and therefore I am not doing anything illegal, it’s true, it is ilegal in the US, but, the US it’s not the world, and, we are not american church members…
In cumorah we not only shares books or movies, there are only a little part of what we do. Moreover, because i have a profession and the knowligde to do it I have access to buy the movie or the book that i want directly in united states by amazon, deseretbooks.com or ebay, but my position is an absolute minority among the hispanamerican members. In fact, I’m now in the US studying an MBA and for me is incredible the difference in price and availability of mormon stuff. Simply paying $ US15 at Netflix I have watched three times the amount of the Mormon movies that had purchased previously by amazon. My idea is to share these temporal blessings with other with people that neved have had the chance to buy or simply to watch a mormon movie or to read another thing of the MIA books. In South America (or spain) it is not so simple to go to rent or buy a mormon movie or disk. Simply is not distribution of any kind of it and on the other hand, the imported movie cost twice for people whose salary is in the regular case only an 10% or 20% of what a tipical American earn. Then, although I understand the issue of illegality in the United States (and I repeat, not in our countries) for me is an act of selfishness does not share my things with people who have no real chance to achieve things mormon culture stuff. One time I explained that I was going to stop of sharing that things that I bought simply for lack of time, I recived many messages of people that did said me thanks to the fact of prividing them of a opportunity to met thing of the “mormon culture” that never before had been able to have and asking me to continue share my thing with them.
So, it is very easy to speak from your reality and judge others in a complety diferent situation. I have lived in South America, and I know the reality in the United States (so near of utah), and I can assure you it is very diferent. Even more, assuming the laws of your country to judge to the rest of the world without asking first why we do it (in fact, this is explained in cumorah, but in Spanish, i did not focused before in english speaking people).
Many people are doing a selfless work to make available to other spanish speaking people books and movies (yes, we also translated movies) that never have reached South America or even been translated into Spanish. Actually, I can stay calm, because I know English, I have my own infobases library (that i did buy for a reidculous US5 in deseret industries) but I am a complete except among thousen of people in a group of countries where the only thing that we can find in church is literally Jesus Christ, Doctrine of salvation and Institute manuals. We can get in a Pharisees position, or we can try to help others with our talents, I prefer the second option. In your case, simply try to knows a little more about other laws in other countries, and please, try to put you in the shoes of saints who do not have the same opportunities that you have in your so blessing country.
Cumorah:
I don’t believe that you are correct. You claim:
What is your source for this claim? Many people think this is true in the US also. It is not. Nor, from what I can tell, is it true in Canada, nor most countries in South America.
Copyright is more consistent around the world than you seem to think. This is because there have been a number of international copyright conventions, starting with the Berne Convention in 1896. Signing these conventions obligates the country to make its laws consistent with standards around the world and respect those of other countries.
I’ve looked both at the spanish-language wikipedia entry on Chile’s copyright law and Chile’s law itself (in pdf format), and I can’t see anything that would allow you to make copies as long as you don’t sell them. [Cumorah, I speak both Spanish and Portuguese, I’m familiar with most of your site, and if you actually read other posts I’ve written here, you would realize I’m advocating for Church members around the world, not trying to make it more difficult.]
This belief also flies in the face of common sense. You could literally put a publisher out of business by making enough copies of a book and giving them away, or keep an author from being able to make money off his work.
The ONLY thing I see in Chile’s law that might have given you the idea that your use is permissable is an exception in the law that allows use of materials “en el contexto del hogar, en establecimientos educacionales o instituciones de beneficencia” (in the context of the home, in educational establishments or charitable institutions.)
However, how you get from this to it being legal to post materials on the Internet for anyone (regardless of whether they are in the home, an educational establishment or a charitable institution) is beyond my understanding.
You wrote: “Many people are doing a selfless work to make available to other spanish speaking people books and movies (yes, we also translated movies) that never have reached South America or even been translated into Spanish.”
Then you should include me among those people, hopefully as someone who will figure out how to get these things done by communicating and working with the owners of intellectual property instead of stealing from them. In the past few years I’ve blogged about the difficulties of non-English speaking members. I’ve discussed the problems with those in the LDS products industry. I’ve participated in starting the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Mormon Studies, worked out a deal to sell Spanish-language books from two Spanish-language LDS publishers on my site, Mormon Pavillion. I’ve also started a collaborative project to translate English-language works into Spanish and Portuguese, Mormon Translation.
The past few weeks I’ve been in South Africa and Mozambique. The latter has many more problems than are found among most people in Chile, and South Africa is probably also worse off than Chile, in most respects. I’m also familiar with Mexico and Brazil. I think most of those who know me would say that your aspersions on my character and assumptions about my ability to put myself in the shoes of members in less developed countries are way off base.
I stand by my claim above. You should talk to a lawyer who knows Chilean copyright law. I believe such a lawyer will tell you that your site is in violation of Chilean copyright law.
And if you would actually talk with members here in the US, I believe you would find that many understand your plight and are willing to help you get things done legally.
I believe you did read only a part of the chilean law, in the same law that you quote is the explanation of my position, i will send it to you.
And certainly you “sense” doesn’t have many sense in a environment as latinamerica in the economic point of view, believe me (i know some of “economy”) under the economic and marketing theory is some different.
Finally, sorry Kent, but, only for visiting some times mexico or south america …. is sooooomeeee different to thing that you know how is the feeling to be in the shoes of the members in less developed countries. Please, turn down of your cloud, believe me, is some different.
As you send me an email with this message i will response you to your email.
Cumorah:
I very much prefer that conversations stay here, so that others may benefit from understanding the situation.
Your defense under Chilean law is tenuous, at best. You claim that a clause in Article 66 of the law, which in context seems to refer to cinematic works, can be extended to anything that is transmitted over the Internet. Article 66 reads:
artÃculo 66: Se prohÃbe grabar, reproducir, transmitir o retransmitir por los organismos de radiodifusión o televisión, o utilizar por cualquier otro medio, con fines de lucro, las interpretaciones o ejecuciones personales de un artista, sin su autorización.
I’m not sure how the fact that this one article contains the words “con fines de lucro” (in order to profit [monetarily]) means that anything can be transmitted over the internet as long as you aren’t trying to profit from it. Since the law dates from the 1970s, well before the Internet existed, its hard to see that as the legislature’s intention. Surely any judge with good sense would rule that wasn’t what the legislators intended or would have written if they knew about the Internet.
As for my commitment and understanding of Latin America, of course I can’t claim to be an expert or really know what it is like. But if you dismiss those of us actually trying to help, who have a basic knowledge of your continent and who are actively thinking about and trying to make the situation better, who will you have to help?
I do recognize the economic challenges that those in Latin America face. For the past three years I have actively been trying to find legal solutions, ones that help members locally by building a market and supporting local authors (instead of merely translating US authors and putting money in the pockets of US companies).
If you would rather disparage my efforts, and call me ignorant about the issues facing Latin America merely because I didn’t grow up there, please find somewhere else to do so. If you would rather find solutions, then please let’s continue the discussion on the comments to the posts here, where many readers can see and benefit from them.
Patricia, I don’t know anything about that. This is the first time that any information on this has ever been provided to me, probably because this isn’t the kind of thing that many members are willing to talk about.
But, I’m not sure that it matters. There are many of us that look at Mormon Literature from a very broad perspective — we include in Mormon Literature works by those who are no longer members and even some who have never had a significant active relationship in the Church.
But, I do appreciate the heads up. I’ll have to get more information about this.
Hi Kent, this is Sonia Pineda from Aztec Press (Previously Latin Voice and Libreria Voz Latina SUD)and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done, are doing and plan to do to make more Spanish LDS books available to our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters. I have great respect and admiration for all you do. There are other great LDS authors in Latin America that you have not mentioned like Luis E. Zegarra and Hans Caspary. Two very talented LDS artists that have been featured in the Ensign recently are Jorge Cocco Santangelo of Argentina and John Zamudio from Peru.
As you know, we are a Spanish LDS publisher, distributor and retailer and we wanted to share that we too have grown frustrated for the three years we have been in business with the numerous sharing of copyrighted material in Latin America. You are right that it hurts the authors and those of us that are trying to make the market grow. Thanks again Kent, keep up the good work you are doing. For those of you that want to learn more about who we are, we invite you to visit our websites:
http://www.aztecpress.com and http://www.emporiolatinosud.com
I was wondering if any of you knew of any LDS Polish musicians. I would like to purchase a CD of LDS music sang in Polish (if it is possible). I noticed that Trevor Banks is in a branch in Poland, maybe he would know of some artists.
.
I believe Trevor has left Poland now, but he still might know. Probably your best bet is to get Adam‘s attention and ask if he knows how to contact Trevor.
Lake,
Th. is right. Trevor is in California (or was at our last contact). You can try e-mailing him at towardanldscinema AT gmail DOT com. Last I heard from him he was shooting all the time and had very little time for anything else, but if he can answer you quickly, I’m sure he will. Actually, I think William is in closer contact with him than I am, but that’s just a general impression from e-mail sharing amongst the three of us. I wish I had better contact info to offer, but I don’t.
Thank you! I appreciate it. Are there any websites that sell non-English speaking LDS music that anyone knows of?
Thanks for the attention.
If you want you can add:
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/carlos.parrini
Twitter: @CarlinhosVP @CarlosParrini
I came across your site and was amazed at the reference to El Mensajero Deseret. I was the editor of the magazine in 1951-52 and still have copies of all issues 1950-1953. Those were difficult times in the Argentine Mission, but we were tough and survived in spite of Peron, severe anti-Mormon attacks by the national church and local government authorities. I also spent 5 years in Brazil in the early days of the Church.
Exiting times! Boa sorte in your endeavors!
Thanks for stopping by, Paul!
Thank you, Paul.
.
We need to get those scanned.
Th., I think that the Church History Library will get that done eventually. I haven’t looked at El Mensajero Deseret, but the Brazilian magazines are all available on microfiche at the library. With their current microfiche readers, it is pretty trivial to pull the image of the pages up on the screen and save a scan to your thumb drive. I have the Brazilian church magazines from the 2nd year (don’t know how I missed the first) through the early 1970s. I think its taken me about 3 to 5 man days to get those scans done.
The library is currently putting up the English-language magazines that haven’t been digitized yet (along with many other documents). I bet that the foreign language materials will follow soon afterwards.
.
Cool. We can safely assume they have all the foreign mags?
I don’t know about ALL, but I believe they have most, given what was in the microfiche cabinets.
Really cool post, though I was a little disappointed reading it, because I have a quest for the non-American Mormon culture, but in a different way (less about artefacts and products and more about attitude – I have a hard time understanding the attitudes and therefore relating with almost everything in the bloggernacle) so the post didn’t talk about what I thought it would. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a very interesting conversation. 🙂
Two music-related names came to mind:
-In Finland we have the singer Mervi Hiltunen of How Many Sisters -fame.
An article about her in Deseret News:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705333532/Faithful-Finn-forsakes-fame-for-family.html?pg=1
(Her own website is http://www.mervi.fi – though the latest CD out is a collection of translated hymns and therefore not in the scope of this conversation…)
-And Sweden’s answer to the Osbornes was the Herreys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herreys
The second generation of Herreys are also cool musical people so who knows maybe they’ll kick up something.
Those are the ones off the top of my head, I know there’s books and poetry and paintings in both Finland and Sweden but… yeah, no details in memory.
What about the UK, is it missing? The Mormon culture there can be a lot like the American version, but at the same time it’s… not. There is a lot of “McChurch” in England, and it is all in English. So are they included in the American Mormon culture (the Anglo-Saxon Mormon culture)?
Inari, thank you for your comment. I’m afraid I don’t quite get what you were looking for in the original post. I certainly wasn’t trying to focus on “artefacts and products” — although without some kind of product, isn’t culture rather hard to pin down at all? Some kind of documentation is necessary, isn’t it?
Perhaps you have something to add to the discussion that would warrant a post itself.
Again, I must admit that I’m not quite sure what you mean when you refer to the “attitudes” in the bloggernacle. Could you explain more?
Regardless, I do appreciate the information about the musicians from Finland and Sweden. It would be great if we had a list or database of such Mormon artists.
As for the UK, lets say that it is “less” missing. UK artists do reach the rest of the Church on occasion, but not like those on the Wasatch Front or in the U.S.
But, I think a large part of this is also about an attitude or perhaps a stylistic preference. Too often the Mormon culture that gets accepted is what is acceptable to those on the Wasatch Front. If that isn’t your preference or what your art represents, then your preference or art is also “missing.”