Latin American Religions: Histories and Documents in Context

by Anna L. Peterson, Manuel A. Vasquez

Overview

Before Columbus, the Americas were populated by many indigenous cultures, with a great diversity of religions. After 1492, European governments and churches dominated religious life. While Roman Catholicism was the official religion, great religious hybridization occurred, mixing European, indigenous, and often African traditions into distinctly New World forms.
Latin American Religions provides an introduction through documents to the historical development and contemporary expressions of religious life in South and Central America, Mexico, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. A central feature of this text is its inclusion of both primary and secondary materials, including letters, sermons, journal entries, ritual manuals, and ancient sacred texts. These documents provide readers with direct access to the voices of adherents, enabling them to act as academic investigators, experiencing and interpreting the same texts on which historians draw. The documents are framed by substantive introductions which provide both historical context and theoretical insights for the study of these religions traditions and the ways in which they have developed over time.
From the religious traditions of the Mayas and Aztecs and of the African diaspora, to official and popular Catholicism, to liberation theology, the rise of Pentecostalism, and emerging trends and new religious movements in Latin America, this new work offers a concise overview of this fascinating field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814767320
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/03/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	581,441
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Anna L. Peterson, Professor at the University of Florida, is the author of Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion and Seeds of the Kingdom: Utopian Communities in the Americas.

Manuel A. Vasquez, Associate Professor at the University of Florida, is the author of The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity and co-author of Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas. Together Peterson and Vasquez have co-edited Christianity, Social Change, and Globalization in the Americas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xi
Introducing Religion in Latin America     1
Indigenous Religions     20
Documents
The Popul Vuh     33
The Florentine Codex     40
The Huarochiri Manuscript     44
The Watunna     49
Colonial Encounters     55
Documents
"Royal Ordinances on Pacification, 1573"     68
"Preface" to In Defense of the Indians   Bartolome de las Casas     70
"An Account of the Idolatries, Superstitions and Abuses in General of the Natives of the Bishopric of Oaxaca"     72
"Marrano Religiosity in Hispanic America in the Seventeenth Century"   Nathan Wachtel     77
"Appeal Concerning the Priest"   Felipe Guaman Poma     84
Religions of the African Diaspora     89
Documents
"The Archbishop of Bahia Rules on Slave Evangelization and Aspects of Their Treatment"     100
"The Black Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary in Recife in the Eighteenth Century"     104
"Black Islam in Brazil"   Roger Bastide     105
The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble   Jim Wafer     112
Guia do Pai de Santo no Candomble   Oga Gimbereua     116
"The Consecration of Ocha:A Capsule Summary"   David H. Brown     119
"Declarations from the Church of Lukumi, Miami"     123
Independence and Modernity     127
Documents
"The Guarani Missions-A Vanished Arcadia"   Robert Cunninghame Graham     142
"The Guarani Missions-A Ruthless Exploitation of the Indians"   Blas Garay     144
"About the Republic" and "Farewell"   Antonio Conselheiro     148
The Testament of Father Cicero Romao Baptista     152
Ley de Patronato Eclesiastico de la Gran Colombia (1824)     155
Protestantism in Latin America     159
Documents
Gunnar Vingren, The Pioneer's Diary   Ivar Vingren     170
"The Pentecostal 'Conquest' of Chile: Rudiments of a Better Understanding"   Christian Lalive D'epinay     176
Followers of the New Faith: Cultural Change and the Rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile   Emilio Willems     183
"'Like a Veil to Cover Them': Women and the Pentecostal Movement in La Paz"   Lesley Gill     191
On the Life of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement in Latin America$dIglesia y Sociedad America Latina (Isal)     197
Postconciliar Roman Catholicism     202
Documents
"Latin America Looks to Catholic Action for a Program of Social Reform"    Manuel Larrain     214
The Church in the Present-Day Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Council: The Medellin Conclusions$dConsejo Episcopal Latinamericano (Celam)     216
"Notes for a Theology of Liberation"   Gustavo Gutierrez     219
What is Base Ecclesial Community?   Frei Betto     221
The Gospel in Solentiname   Ernesto Cardenal     226
"Fourth Pastoral Letter: The Church's Mission amid the National Crisis" (August 1979)   Oscar Romero     229
Contemporary Religious Diversity and Change     239
Documents
"Descarrego"   Eric W. Kramer     255
Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle   Gary Shepherd   Gordon Shepherd     260
"Ritual, Ethnicity, and Religious Identity in the Muslim Communities in Brazil"   Paulo Gabriel Hilu Da Rocha Pinto     266
"Zen Buddhism in Brazil: Japanese or Brazilian?"   Cristina Moreira Da Rocha     273
"The Rituals of Santo Daime"   Edward Macrae     278
Notes     287
Suggested Readings     311
Index     319
About the Editors     325

Editorial Reviews

"Historically, religions all too often have been understood as a side bar to political, social, economic, and historical contexts.Before this reader, no book existed to introduce students to the complex sweep of religions and religious history in Latin America. Latin American Religions fills this yawning gap admirably. Gone is the idea that all Latin Americans are Catholic. . . . We learn about indigenous traditions, the African diaspora, Catholicism, Protestantism, other alternative Christianities, and various world religions. This book should prove a must for any introductory course on Latin America, or for any individuals—beginning or advanced—who wish to deepen their knowledge of the continent."

Kay A. Read

"A truly impressive achievement. Peterson and Vásquez have focused unfailingly on the most important trends and turning points in over a half a millennium of Latin American religious history. The volume is that rarest of things: a work of scholarship that is both broad and deep."

John Burdick

"This exploration of Latin American religious history is broad yet detailed. Like the region, religious views in this compilation are varied and diverse. Ranging from indigenous and colonial times to contemporary forays into Buddhism and Mormonism, the book explores all of the region's major religious movements to provide a thorough introduction and summary. . . . this work's scope and breadth likely will make it an important textbook for Latin American studies as well as an excellent introduction to the topic for any reader."

Choice