期刊名称：Totem : the University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology
印刷版ISSN：1203-8830
电子版ISSN：1925-8542
出版年度：1994
卷号：1
期号：1
出版社：University of Western Ontario
摘要：Elvis Presley. the anointed King of rock and roll. died on August 16. 1977. Empirical fact? Many people are undeterred by this trivial piece of information from believing a mythology which seems to be constructing itself on the premise that Elvis lives on. There are two fundamental explanations for a surviving Elvis. Many believe that Elvis' death was a hoax:. perpetrated by the star himself to escape the relentless scrutiny of his fans and the media. Still others feel Elvis is among the living in supematural form. comforting the sick and the troubled as a ghostly and benevolent apparition. Many might well scoff at these beliefs as completely irrational. And yet this phenomena can no longer be relegated to the collective obsession of the lunatic fringe. About 2.000 visitors a day make the pilgrimage to Graceland. 700.000 annually. and the tenth anniversary drew 10.000. There are over 600.000 members of fan clubs in the United States alone; and the nation is petitioning the govemment for a commemorative postage stamp. Stories of sightings of a live Elvis or a supematural Elvis are spilling out of supemiarkets and into bookstores. Abandoning the standard of rationality and looking at these beliefs as pure myth from the anthropological perspective sheds a great deal of lig.11ton how and why a mythology with Elvis Presley as its focus comes into being.
