Lectures & Seminars Notes Religion, Media
& Popular Culture
Week 1 The Anthropology of Religion
Lecture 15/11/22
Brazilian Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria
Continuation on the other hand new
Stilk religion, but comes from the non-West
But..
In relation to Maradonna have developed certain calls on the one hand catholic on the other hand
ideas of football, stardom, collective experience that of something beyond the human
→ You might say this is not religion, but if you go to some of the followers of the Maradonna cult
they are as devowed to Maradonna
Practises beyond what we already know
- Could be related to religious movements that we have known but have gone into slightly
different ways. transformation
Rockstar Pope
Rebranded. He is a cooler pope
The Passion 2017
Television is apart of the way religion is being transmitted
The Passion 2018 “Bijlmer”
Refugees
Memorial site “Bijlmer disaster 1992”
Memorial plain crash while also telling a story about Jesus
“Je bent niet alleen”
Genre
Lyrics
- repetition like a ritual
Clothing
- using symbols to tell a story
That brings to the forefront:
- Continuity and change of religious traditions within societies
, - The use of importance of new/mass media
- Overlaps between celebrity culture
The Passion
- free musical event
- city marketing
- form of worship
- reli-kitsch
- express virtue of love
- experience of unity
- spectacular TV show
- evangelization
→ different elements necessary to understand this phenomena
nationalism, identity and racialization
Movements connection with religion and popular culture phenomena
- music and religion
- architecture and religion
Documentary Nuestra Santisima Muerte Our Most Holy Death 2011
- They are still practicing Catholicism
- To what extent Santa Muerte is seen as the highest being?
- How within a proper religious tradition there are often struggles about who gets to define the
proper religion/tradition?
- Correlations with Catholicism
- The figure/the skinny one
- Fashionable/international figure
→ Popular culture in Breaking Bad
→ Part of music genre
Questions for the seminar
On page 8 and 9, Eller summarizes 6 social and cultural functions of religion. Think about and discuss
which of these aspects/functions you may have seen during the Santa Muerte documentary and in the
article by Laura Roush. One should at least come up with answers to the questions: “Does the Culto
de Santa Muerte create social cohesion? When and for whom does it? And when does it not?”.
Would we understand the prominence and power of religion in Mexico City if we only visit churches
and/or look at sanctioned representatives of the Catholic Church? What is needed to begin to
understand the prominence and power of religion in Mexico City?
People who feel criminalized feel attracted to a religion that does not demonize them and welcomes
them
The Anthropology of Religion
,Probably no single definition of something as diverse as religion could ever quite capture it. Rather,
what we find is that various definitions emphasize certain aspects or betray the theoretical orientations
of their authors (Eller 2002, 6).
→ Diverse reasons for believing
- morals
→ Religion is part of culture: the way we tend to speak about what is religion and what is not
- ethics, not about religion. it is something else
- sacred, holy
Evolutionist approaches
Functionalist approaches
Historical Materialism
Interpretative approaches
Genealogical approaches
Evolutionist approaches
E.B. Tylor (1832-1917)
Animism → Polytheism → Monotheism
Animism= understanding that non-human things have a spiritual presence
Monotheism in Christian view= the ultimate belief is us
James George Frazer (1854-1941)
Magic → Religion
Reverse: in many religions we see magic.
Functionalist approaches
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
● Religion is a projection of the power of society into the realm of the supernatural
● In religion, society worships itself and it is the ultimate means to enforce social conformity
● Key mechanism is the separation of things, persons and phenomena as sacred in contrast to
the profane
Society is holy/sacred
Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942)
“We find magic wherever the elements of chance and accident, and the emotional play between hope
and fear have a wide and extensive range. We do not find magic wherever the pursuit is certain,
reliable and well under the control of rational methods.”
Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)
Religion is one of the institutions that functions to form and maintain social order
Historical materialism
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
, Not necessary, but religion is abused
Strong critique of thinking as religion as society as an order and without it it would collapse
Marx would think one has to get rid of religion
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Religion is historically specific
Religion intersects with economic, material, political conditions but is not determined by it
Modernity/rationality pushes a disenchantment of society
Religion sparked capitalism
Think of these relations as entangled, religion could promote certain kinds of economic life and justify
it. Religion could also be a critique to capitalism
→ Santa Muerte critique of neoliberal society. Dedicated to people who are forced to do informal
labor.
Still saw religion disappearing as rationality
Interpretative approaches
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)
Religion= “ 1 a system of symbols which acts to 2 establish powerful persuasive and
long-lasting moods and motivations in men by 3 formulating conceptions of a general order
of existence and 4 clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that 5. the
moods
→ 2 Santa Muerte people were moved by her
Genealogical approaches
Talal Asad (1932-)
● The power of symbols is not produced by the symbols themselves but the constellation of
practices in which they operate
● The modern concept of religion is a false universalization of a Western, specifically Protestant
experience of religion
Critique on Geertz religion as a category and symbolic anthropology
→ 1 becomes given
→ But who reproduces these systems of symbols? There are hierarchies
→ Category religion in relation to colonialism. Saying they ar eels civilized because they
practice magic.
The sacred
Following the works of Durkheim, Otto and Eliade the sacred can be defined as that which is
‘set apart’ from ordinary life; instills a sense of awe; plays a key role in the reproduction of
community; and is considered very powerful
& Popular Culture
Week 1 The Anthropology of Religion
Lecture 15/11/22
Brazilian Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria
Continuation on the other hand new
Stilk religion, but comes from the non-West
But..
In relation to Maradonna have developed certain calls on the one hand catholic on the other hand
ideas of football, stardom, collective experience that of something beyond the human
→ You might say this is not religion, but if you go to some of the followers of the Maradonna cult
they are as devowed to Maradonna
Practises beyond what we already know
- Could be related to religious movements that we have known but have gone into slightly
different ways. transformation
Rockstar Pope
Rebranded. He is a cooler pope
The Passion 2017
Television is apart of the way religion is being transmitted
The Passion 2018 “Bijlmer”
Refugees
Memorial site “Bijlmer disaster 1992”
Memorial plain crash while also telling a story about Jesus
“Je bent niet alleen”
Genre
Lyrics
- repetition like a ritual
Clothing
- using symbols to tell a story
That brings to the forefront:
- Continuity and change of religious traditions within societies
, - The use of importance of new/mass media
- Overlaps between celebrity culture
The Passion
- free musical event
- city marketing
- form of worship
- reli-kitsch
- express virtue of love
- experience of unity
- spectacular TV show
- evangelization
→ different elements necessary to understand this phenomena
nationalism, identity and racialization
Movements connection with religion and popular culture phenomena
- music and religion
- architecture and religion
Documentary Nuestra Santisima Muerte Our Most Holy Death 2011
- They are still practicing Catholicism
- To what extent Santa Muerte is seen as the highest being?
- How within a proper religious tradition there are often struggles about who gets to define the
proper religion/tradition?
- Correlations with Catholicism
- The figure/the skinny one
- Fashionable/international figure
→ Popular culture in Breaking Bad
→ Part of music genre
Questions for the seminar
On page 8 and 9, Eller summarizes 6 social and cultural functions of religion. Think about and discuss
which of these aspects/functions you may have seen during the Santa Muerte documentary and in the
article by Laura Roush. One should at least come up with answers to the questions: “Does the Culto
de Santa Muerte create social cohesion? When and for whom does it? And when does it not?”.
Would we understand the prominence and power of religion in Mexico City if we only visit churches
and/or look at sanctioned representatives of the Catholic Church? What is needed to begin to
understand the prominence and power of religion in Mexico City?
People who feel criminalized feel attracted to a religion that does not demonize them and welcomes
them
The Anthropology of Religion
,Probably no single definition of something as diverse as religion could ever quite capture it. Rather,
what we find is that various definitions emphasize certain aspects or betray the theoretical orientations
of their authors (Eller 2002, 6).
→ Diverse reasons for believing
- morals
→ Religion is part of culture: the way we tend to speak about what is religion and what is not
- ethics, not about religion. it is something else
- sacred, holy
Evolutionist approaches
Functionalist approaches
Historical Materialism
Interpretative approaches
Genealogical approaches
Evolutionist approaches
E.B. Tylor (1832-1917)
Animism → Polytheism → Monotheism
Animism= understanding that non-human things have a spiritual presence
Monotheism in Christian view= the ultimate belief is us
James George Frazer (1854-1941)
Magic → Religion
Reverse: in many religions we see magic.
Functionalist approaches
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
● Religion is a projection of the power of society into the realm of the supernatural
● In religion, society worships itself and it is the ultimate means to enforce social conformity
● Key mechanism is the separation of things, persons and phenomena as sacred in contrast to
the profane
Society is holy/sacred
Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942)
“We find magic wherever the elements of chance and accident, and the emotional play between hope
and fear have a wide and extensive range. We do not find magic wherever the pursuit is certain,
reliable and well under the control of rational methods.”
Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)
Religion is one of the institutions that functions to form and maintain social order
Historical materialism
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
, Not necessary, but religion is abused
Strong critique of thinking as religion as society as an order and without it it would collapse
Marx would think one has to get rid of religion
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Religion is historically specific
Religion intersects with economic, material, political conditions but is not determined by it
Modernity/rationality pushes a disenchantment of society
Religion sparked capitalism
Think of these relations as entangled, religion could promote certain kinds of economic life and justify
it. Religion could also be a critique to capitalism
→ Santa Muerte critique of neoliberal society. Dedicated to people who are forced to do informal
labor.
Still saw religion disappearing as rationality
Interpretative approaches
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)
Religion= “ 1 a system of symbols which acts to 2 establish powerful persuasive and
long-lasting moods and motivations in men by 3 formulating conceptions of a general order
of existence and 4 clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that 5. the
moods
→ 2 Santa Muerte people were moved by her
Genealogical approaches
Talal Asad (1932-)
● The power of symbols is not produced by the symbols themselves but the constellation of
practices in which they operate
● The modern concept of religion is a false universalization of a Western, specifically Protestant
experience of religion
Critique on Geertz religion as a category and symbolic anthropology
→ 1 becomes given
→ But who reproduces these systems of symbols? There are hierarchies
→ Category religion in relation to colonialism. Saying they ar eels civilized because they
practice magic.
The sacred
Following the works of Durkheim, Otto and Eliade the sacred can be defined as that which is
‘set apart’ from ordinary life; instills a sense of awe; plays a key role in the reproduction of
community; and is considered very powerful
