Exam 3 - Culture & Religion Flashcards
Latin American Catholicism: current characteristics, subtypes & characteristics
Formal Catholicism—support for and participation in
teaching/programs of the institutional Roman Church
– Strongest among elites; geographically among old
conservative mining and ranching communities
• Nominal Catholics—defined as “believing but not practicing”
– Urban middle and lower classes; also in rural peasantry
(mixed with folk); most common of subtypes
– Mass attendance: 10-15% per week
– Low level of participation in sacraments among poor
• Folk Catholicism—includes Indigenous and African beliefs
(syncretism)—ceremonies viewed by formal Roman Church
as pagan-animism
– Indigenous folk Catholicism diminishing
– African folk Catholicism thriving
Conquest & conversion techniques
• Converting the indigenous
– Replacing indigenous shrines with Catholic
religious imagery
– Teaching the Christian gospels to facilitate
participation in the sacraments
– Missionary accommodation & tolerance
– Acceptance of cultural practices not expressly
forbidden in the Bible
Syncretism: how, examples
Mixing or combining different belief systems
• Began with Europeans trying to promote an association
between Indian and Catholic gods
– Festivals/fiestas
– Religious sites—built over Indian constructions; shrines
at sacred springs/mountains
• Cult of the Virgin
– Partially assumed role of Indian earth mother
goddesses
– Virgin of Guadalupe (1531)—appeared at site of
worship for Aztec virgin mother goddess Tonantzin
• Dark-skinned virgin’s appearance to an Indian
helped with conversions—became symbol of
Mexican Catholicism
• Other non-Marian miracles—Black Christ of Esquipulas
(Guatemala)—at former Mayan site for worship of ekchuah
• Most people outwardly or nominally Catholic within a few
decades of Conquest
Non-Catholic faiths: Asian Diaspora, Jewish Diaspora
• Hinduism—primarily in Guyana, Suriname, T&T,
Jamaica—indentured laborers in British colonies
• Islam—first wave—Suriname (from Java &
subcontinent)—second wave—migrants fleeing
failing Ottoman Empire (Turks & Arabs, Syrians,
Lebanese (to Brazil))
• Both have experienced alterations to Old World
beliefs—distance from them & persecution or
absorption of other traditions
• Distinct “East Indian” non-Creole cultures
Judaism—the Jewish Diaspora in Latin America
first came with the Conquest—brought their
faith secretly to the New World
– Jews in Spain/Portugal/the Netherlands
– Only about 10,000 at beginning of 20th
century
• The second wave of the Diaspora came during
the late 19th and into the 20th century—fleeing
Holocaust, Communism, other threats in Europe
– Majority located in urban centers of Brazil
and Argentina; secondary settlement in
Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and Chile
Protestantism – trends, characteristics
Largest, most rapidly expanding non-Catholic religion
– Less than 100,000 protestants at start of 20th century
• Attributes of Latin American Protestantism today
– Greatest appeal among economically dispossessed—urban lower class and
rural peasantry
– Dominated by fundamentalist, charismatic beliefs and practices
(evangelicos)—2/3 to ¾
– Emphasis on unpaid church service—develops leadership/management
skills
– Small church organizational structure—functions as a mutual aid society—
women make up 65-70% of converts
– Largely indigenous and independent of foreign control—local ministers
and missionaries—contrary to critiques
• Very localized geography
– Extremely fragmented—rivalries exist among different churches
– Rapid Growth—outstripped overall population growth
• Critiques of Protestantism in Latin America
– Supremely individualistic—self-improvement—spiritual
salvation for the individual’s afterlife & material salvation
in this life through hard work (“gospel of success”)
• Rather than larger sociopolitical goals
– Break down of tradition—converts excluded from
traditional community—ties are often affirmed through
ceremonial practices related to Catholic or quasi-Catholic
traditions*
