Inhabitants of the Screen
Celebrity and the Production of Religious Authority in Bahian Candomblé
Keywords:
Celebrity politics, candomblé, religious authority, media imaginaries, Bahia, BrazilAbstract
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 ?nd 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.
References
Bastide, Roger 2000 [1958] O Candomblé da Bahia. Rito Nagô. Editora Schwarcz, São Paulo.
Braga, Julio 1999 A cadeira de ogã e outro ensaios. Pallas, Rio de Janeiro.
Carneiro, Edison 2000 [1958] Candomblés da Bahia. Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro.
Castillo, Lisa Earl 2008 Entre a oralidade e a escrita. A etnografia nos candomblés da Bahia. Salvador: Edufba.
Certeau, Michel de 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Costa Lima, Vivaldo da 2003 A família de santo. Nos candomblés Jejes-Nagôs da Bahia. Um estudo de relações intragrupais. Corrupio, Salvador.
Couldry, Nick 2003 Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. Routledge, London.
De Witte, Marleen 2003 Altar Media’s Living Word. Televised Charismatic Christianity in Ghana. Journal of Religion in Africa 33(2): 172-202. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700660360703132.
Landes, Ruth 1947 The City of Women. MacMillan, New York.
MacLagan, Meg 2002 Spectacles of Difference: Cultural Activism and the Mass Mediation of Tibet. In Media Worlds: Anthropology on a New Terrain, edited by Faye Ginzburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin, 90-115. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Maggie, Yvonne 1992 Medo do feitiço: relações entre magia e poder no Brasil. Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
Öncü, Ayse 2006 Becoming ‘Secular-Muslims’: Yashar Nuri Öztürk as a Supersubject on Turkish Television’. In Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, edited by Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, 227-51. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Ramos, Arthur 1988 O negro brasileiro. Fundação Joaquim Nabuco/Editora Massangana, Recife.
Rodrigues, Raimundo Nina 1935 [1900] O animismo fetichista dos negros baianos. Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro.
Sá, Xico 2004 Divina Comédia da Fama. Purgatório, paraíso e inferno de quem sonha ser uma celebridade. Objectiva, Rio de Janeiro.
Sansi-Roca, Roger 2007 Fetishes and Monuments: Afro-Brazilian Art and Culture in the 20th Century. Berghahn Books, London.
Santos, Jocélio Teles dos 2002 Menininha do Gantois: a sacralização do poder. In Caminhos da alma. Memória afro-brasileira, edited by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva, 133-53. Selo Negro, São Paulo.
