Religion and The Walking dead презентация

to confront a new, apocalyptic world overrun by flesh-eating zombies.
Grimes reunites with his family and becomes the leader of a group he forms with some of the many other survivors whom he encounters in his quest for a safe haven.
Together they are forced to survive and adapt in a world filled with the zombies (aka walkers) and certain humans who are even more dangerous than the zombies themselves.
The first season takes place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and the second through fourth seasons are set in the surrounding countryside of northern Georgia.

finale (March 29, 2015) of “The Walking Dead” was the highest-rated finale in series history, delivering 15.8 million viewers and 10.4 million adults 18-49. The episode capped the show’s strong fifth season with all 16 episodes ranking in the top 20 entertainment telecasts across all of television this broadcast season among adults 18-49.

ratings with over 16 million people watching the premier.

The Walking Dead had a rating of 8.2 from people from the age of 18-49 which makes it the most popular show for that demographic.

Many different spellings (Vodou, Voodoo, Vodoun, and Hoodoo)
Meaning of Vodou
No scriptures or set of orthodoxy
"Goal" of Vodou

Vodou.
In Haiti, there are three lines of African influence
Vodou is a syncratic religion
Most songs, sayings, and religious terms are from the Creole language

Domingue (now Haiti) was given to the French in 1697
French imported an unprecedented number of slaves
On August 11 1791, "Bois Caiman" occurred
Important ceremony for Vodou as it launched the African slaves revolution on the plantation houses.
The French were driven out in 1803.
Haiti was the second New World country to gain independence and the first run by former slaves.

black Africans and their New World descendants liberated themselves from the French, they sent a shockwave throughout the Western hemisphere. In their struggle for independence, revolutionary blacks in St Domingue committed considerable violence against white colonists. This was the darkest nightmare of all slaveholders, sprung to life: violent delights come to violent ends. Those fleeing from the Haitian Revolution were treated as though they carried a dangerous disease. Many places, including New Orleans, attempted to control the influx of blacks from Haiti, who, like pathogenic agents, might spread the spirit of rebellion. It is not surprising, then, that Vodou would become a fixation in the white imagination, a site for expressions of both fear and denigration.

of Vodou
Vodou became entrenched in Haitian culture
Vodou was so subtly syncretized with Catholicism

World.
From 1920 National Geographic article commented upon the U.S. occupation: "Here [meaning Haiti], in the elemental wilderness, the natives rapidly forgot their thin veneer of Christian civilization and reverted to utter, unthinking animalism, swayed only by fear of local bandit chiefs and the black magic of voodoo witch doctors.“
The U.S. seized control stating they were protecting it from the Germans.
In 1941, the U.S. Marines took control and attempted to stamp out Vodou
After US left Vodou flourished

was elected
Duvalier dies in 1971 - his son Jean-Cluade (Baby Doc) took control
In 1990, a former Catholic Priest, Pere Jean-Bertrand, was elected - ruled the country according to its Constitution which states religious freedom

most Parliamentarians terms have expired and, without the possibility of quorum, parliament is no longer functioning.
President Martelly is left to rule the country by decree with an interim Government.
August 2015 Haiti is set for another election.

January 2010, Haitian culture and religion fell, once again, under the focus of the international media and opinion makers.
Recycling of stereotypes about Haitian Vodou.
David Brooks’s New York Times opined that Haitian Vodou was the cause of many of Haiti’s woes.  
“Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. . . . We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.”
 McGee states “the implication was that, in a country rife with superstition, our well-meaning efforts would succeed only in wasting dollars, as Haiti would inevitably backslide into its heathen ways.”
NY Times Opinion Pages: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=0

is called a Mambo
Primary responsibilities
Temple called a Houmfor
Myths
Creator god named Maori
Bondye (Mawu-Lisa) created the universe, the Loa, humanity, etc.
Vodou theology eventually mingled this thought with Catholicism.
Loa: basically, the Vodou spirits or gods.
Loas are numerous and most exhibit various personalities and characteristics.
They are an archetype of moral principles that he or she represents. Like people, however, they have strengths and weaknesses.

in an animal's body
Zobops, Grotesque monsters conjured up by sorcerers
All priests and priestesses countered black magic
Bocors operate in secret

fear of slavery and forced servitude
Created from bocor magic
Bocor reanimates a corpse and makes them a mindless slave
Critics claim these "zombies" appear to display various symptoms of mental deficiency or illness

induce a death-like state.
Davis claims that in order for someone to be subject to zombification, they must first be found to have broken some specific social norm, such as stealing someone's spouse, and thus it exerts a positive social control.
In Haiti, Zombies are not feared, but are rather objects of pity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXcjioLLvRQ

in New Orleans and New York.
Marie Laveau, also known as the Vodou Queen of New Orleans and Zora Neale Hurston
Created a safe haven for Vodou
The sites of Laveau's ceremonies are sacred
After her death, Vodou went underground due to the federal, state, city government officials, and American Protestant leaders attempts to destroy African-diasporic folk religion in Louisiana

production”
“They appeal because they evoke voodoo.”
Response can be one of curiosity, awe, fear, shock, good-natured humor or derision.
Examples
pinstruck.com
Spice Girls’ song ‘‘Voodoo’’
Portland’s Voodoo Donuts

a distinct religion called by the nearly identical name of ‘‘voodoo’’—which is made no less real for the fact that it has no actual practitioners and, for all intents and purposes, does not exist except in the imaginations of millions of people who have been exposed to American popular culture.”
Inspired loosely by actual encounters with African-derived religious practices but does not attempt to realistically represent them.
Voodoo exists as a receptacle for centuries of anxieties caused by Colonialism and slavery

particular mood to horror films
Voodoo’s depictions of horror first depicted in travel journals
Human sacrifice
Sex
Violence

starting in 1930’s to present
Not a comprehensive analysis, but certainly a selective one
Themes
Sexualizing Women and Control
Voodoo and Satanism
Colonialism and Voodoo
Zombie-less Voodoo
Voodoo and Blackness
Disease Anxieties
Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie Post-Apocalyse

in TWD connected to voodoo?
Are the zombies connected to Satanism?
Are the zombies connected to black magic?
Do you think that TWD sexualizes women?
How is blackness represented?
Is colonialism present in TWD?
Is there a disease anxiety?
Is the show apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic?

past or current anxieties?

How do religious themes, motifs, tropes, etc … in The Walking Dead create discourse to conceptualize the socio-cultural context?