Question

Diane L. Eck asks, "What religious attire may one wear? A cross? Yarmulke? Head scarf? Turban?" (par.1). What is the rhetorical effect of the order in which she has chosen to list the items?

Answer 1

Diana L. Eck is an American scholar of religious studies and professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. She is also the Director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard.

In this excerpt, the order in which she presents the items serves a rhetorical purpose. The items are listed in order of how "accepted" they are in mainstream American society. Christianity (a cross) is well-accepted, while Judaism (yarmulke) is still omnipresent, but more contentious. As she goes on, the list would appear more and more exotic to American readers. The question therefore is successful in testing the limits of religious plurality.