Epilogue

The epilogue catalogues what has changed at the feast and at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel since the completion of the research. It demonstrates how ethnography probes the ephemeral. Moreover, it explores how the church is entering a new era of publicity and financial stability but examines the way people feel uncomfortable about issues of money and a seemingly new spirit of acquisitiveness, their critiques highlighting the ways there are “appropriate” and “inappropriate” ways to make money at the feast. It presents the outcomes of the devotional labor and work of the men featured in the book, confirming the assertion that gendered work, devotion, and status are inseparable at OLMC. It concludes by arguing that the feast and parish offer young men the promise of a route to manhood. The feast promises meaningful labor and the possibility of being a self-made man, albeit a church-made version.