KMT 2016 nr 2

Paulina Chmiel-Antoniuk

Commercialization and popularization of religious content on the vodoun example

Cite: Paulina Chmiel-Antoniuk, Komercjalizacja i popularyzacja treści religijnych na przykładzie vodoun*, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2016( 25) nr 2, s. 198-215.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.25.14

Following the progress of social and economic transformations, commercialization of vodoun allowed it to enter the pop culture. Pop culture began to associate vodoun with the traditions of shamanism, zombie and voodoo dolls, ingrained forever within the framework of the culture of brutality and alien-nation, or fashion for anything that is rejected and excluded. I examined the videos, that is films, games of American production, bearing references to vodoun, in search for answers to the question, whether publicizing of vodoun  leads to trivialisation and desacralisation of religious contents, with build-up of a model of privatised invisible religion. The effects of my analysis showed that commercialisation of  vodoun made the contents less profound and deprived the sacrum area from its ceremonial nature. The traditions and ceremonies present in the magic culture, when transferred to pop culture, lose their sacral aspects, and become a type of services and a form of entertainment.

About authors

mgr Paulina Chmiel-Antoniuk

ORCID: (nieznany)