The Scacred and the Profane

Belk et al explore how objects can become vehicles to transcendent experiences and can show elements of the “sacred”.

The research shows that there is a clear difference between the sacred and the profane/ordinary. The sacred is usually related to religion, magic, totemism, animism and pagan cultures. However there is also proof that “sacred” goes beyond these. This paper explores through empirical and conceptual research that contemporary consumption carries aspects of the sacred and profane. Processes are examined principally through analysis of field data tempered by literature.

This work is intended as a conceptual contribution to parallel disciplines and as an empirical contribution to consumer research. The authors examine theories around religion to explain the sacred in consumption. They then look at the shift in boundaries between the sacred and the profane and finally link what areas of consumer behaviour can benefit from this study.

Researchers collected data in various outdoor (festivals, fairs, events) and indoor (people’s homes, offices) environments, carried out in-depth interviews, observational note taking and video recording.

Two processes emerged from this research: 1) the transformation of profane commodities to sacred objects, and 2) the maintenance and loss of sacredness. In order to develop an understanding of these processes, researchers carried out a list of tests until they were completely englobed by the theory.

First, the authors explored elements of the sacred and the profane in religion. They look at various authors, such as William James (1961) who defines religion as: “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine” but acknowledges that the interpretation of “divine” should extend beyond that, including “any object that is godlike, whether it be a concrete deity or not”. At this point, James (1961) identifies the presence of a broader element which Roberts (1984), a sociologist, builds upon in his own definition and mentions the term “sacred”: “Religion has to do with a unique and extra-ordinary experience—an experience that has a sacred dimension and is unlike everyday life . . . the experience of the holy.”

The authors then examine Durkheim and Eliade’s works which identifies 12 properties of sacredness:

1)    Hierophany: the fact that people don’t create the sacred but that it presents itself to them.

2)    Kratophany or “power through strong ambivalent reaction”. Sacredness involves strong positive feelings toward gods, acts of devotion, heaven, angels while juxtapositioning them to the fear of the devil, evil, hell, demons.

3)    Opposition to profane: nothing profane can touch the sacred.

4)    Contamination: the positively sacred can be contaminated by the negatively sacred and vice versa.

5)    Sacrifice, “gift to gods”: offering the profane to the sacred.

6)    Commitment: people feel emotionally attached to the sacred, which draws communities together.

7)    Objectification: giving an object transcendent meaning.

8)    Ritual: the ways in which people act in the presence of sacred objects.

9)    Myths: they surround the sacred and help document its status through time.

10) Mystery: the sacred instils fear therefore should not be understood.

11) Communitas: it strips man from its statuses and brings people together, creating camaraderie.

12)  Ecstasy and flow: Sacred brings up emotions, feelings.

Finally, the shifting boundaries between the sacred and the profane are looked at. Changes in the contemporary world show that sacred does not automatically mean religious anymore. There are two trends: one is that there is a secularisation of religion in our contemporary society and a sacralisation of the secular.

1)    Secularisation of religion

Religion itself now is more “relaxed” than before, it is no longer traditional. Religion is less strict: prayer is on a low, Christmas has been secularised. Authors also identify the entry of the sacred into the profane: the religious programmes on TV and radio for example.

2)    Sacralisation of the secular

As religion lost control of art, government, knowledge, these started to become sacred. National celebrations, national holidays, statues, hymns replace the religious processes.

This paper creates an interesting insight into the transformations of how we interact with commodities, which reflects in what we wrote about our cherished possessions. Some of us sacralised their meaningful objects through rituals, protection from contamination and engaged in the mystery that surrounded their object and some cherished possessions were objectifications of a feeling, emotion, memories. This paper will be useful when exploring aspects of singularisation, divestment and rituals associated to those, as well as lending and the fear of contamination, or on the contrary seeing lending as an act of sacrifice.

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