Inhabitants of the Screen: Celebrity and the Production of Religious Authority in Bahian Candomblé

In Bahia, Brazil, the public articulation of religious authority comes to depend more and more on celebrity discourses. This article takes the Afro-Brazilian spirit possession cult Candomblé as an example to show how in media-saturated societies religious and media imaginaries become inextricably en...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian religion studies review
Main Author: Port, Mattijs van de 1961- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: AASR [2011]
In: Australian religion studies review
Further subjects:B Candomblé
B religious authority
B Brazil
B media imaginaries
B Bahia
B Celebrity politics
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:In Bahia, Brazil, the public articulation of religious authority comes to depend more and more on celebrity discourses. This article takes the Afro-Brazilian spirit possession cult Candomblé as an example to show how in media-saturated societies religious and media imaginaries become inextricably entangled. In their struggle to be publicly recognized as a proper ‘religion', Candomblé priests find themselves overcoming their media-shyness. Televisual fame is a value understood by the public at large, and its acquisition adds weight to the status and prestige of Candomblé priests in ways that religious criteria for priestly authority cannot accomplish.
ISSN:1744-9014
Contains:Enthalten in: Australian religion studies review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jasr.v24i3.254