Templo de Salomão: among tourists and faithful: an ethnographic analysis about the formation and mobilization of public

• Grant number: 17/13884-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Paula Montero
• Grantee: Gustavo Aires Tiago
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Temple of Solomon, inaugurated in 2014 in the district of Brás in São Paulo, is the world headquarters of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD). According to data from the Universal Church itself, more than 2 million visitors passed through the temple in less than a year after its inauguration. In the IURD media, daily news is published about caravans of worshipers from all over the world and tourists seeking to visit the temple. The purpose of the Project is to elucidate the way in which the various publics - "iurdianos" or not - that visit the Temple are mobilized and the apparatuses used in publicizing and generating the visibility of the Temple of Solomon. To this end, ethnographic methodologies such as participant observation and social network analysis will be used, as well as interviews and documentary analysis of the media material of the Universal Church. (AU)