THE POLITICAL AMBIGUITY OF LATIN AMERICAN POPULAR RELIGION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54561/prj0901019mKeywords:
Popular religion, liberation theology, hegemony, aboriginal myths, popular culture, religious rebellionsAbstract
This article will present some historical cases, some ancient, some very recent, of how such ambiguity of the religious forces and popular religiosity has played in Latin America. Through this case we will analyze how and why in “the popular” the same cultural phenomena can play sometimes a very conservative role, and then, in others, turn into a menacing power to the traditional social order. On one hand, it is a way in which conservative hegemony has captured the potential and will of the masses and used it to domesticate its claims (opium of the people). But in other cases it has stimulated the dreams and hopes, and has provided unexpected vitality to the people in their search for justice and better living conditions. The traditional aboriginal (pre-conquest) religions and worldviews, as well as new religious experiences brought by the slave trade and migrations sometimes provided myths and images that reinforced the liberating thrust of religious forces.
References
Bourdieu Pierre, “Gènese et structure de champ religieux”, Revue Française de Sociologie, Vol. 12, 1971.
Cardenal Ernesto, The Gospel in Solentiname, Orbis books, New York, 1982.
Laclau Ernesto, La razón populista, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Buenos Aires, 2005. English: On Populist Reason, Verso, London, 2005.
MacMullen Ramsay, Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100-400, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984.
Maduro Otto, Religión y conflicto social, CEE/CRT, Mexico, 1980.
Nestor Miguez, “The Nomadismo of the Popular and the Religious”, in J. Reiger (ed.), Across Borders, Plymouth, Lexington Books, 2013.
Nestor Miguez, “Latin American reading of the Bible. Experiences, Challenges and its Practice”, Journal of Latin American Hermeneutics, No. 1, 2004, Instituto Universitario ISEDET.
Semán Pablo, Daniel Míguez, Entre santos, cumbias y piquetes, Editorial Biblos, Buenos Aires, 2006.
Pavez Ojeda, Jorge y Kraushaar, Lilith, “Nombre, muerte y santificación de una prostituta. Escritura y culto de Botitas Negras”, AIBR, Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2010.
Ranciere Jacques, El Desacuerdo, Nueva Visión, Buenos Aires, 2007. English: Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, University of Minnesota, 2004.
Renold Juan Mauricio, “El Padre Ignacio: sanación y eficacia simbólica”, in: Renold, J.M. (ed.), Miradas antropológicas sobre la vida religiosa, Ediciones CICCUS, Buenos Aires, 2008.
Sepúlveda Juan, “Pentecostalism as popular religiosity”, International Review of Mission, Vol. 78, No. 309, 1989.
Vargas Llosa Mario, The war of the end of the World, New York, Straus and Giroux, Farrar, 1984.