Santa Muerte Devotion: Vulnerability, Protection, Intimacy

by Wil G. Pansters

Overview

In recent decades the cult of Santa Muerte has become a remarkable phenomenon in Mexico's popular religious landscape, from where it has migrated abroad. Due to the uncommon iconography of the robed skeleton and the association with criminality, the Santa Muerte cult has been the object of public controversy. This Element deconstructs mainstream views of Santa Muerte devotion by privileging the voices and practices of devotees. Counterintuitively, Santa Muerte devotion is about assuring a good life in health, work, love, justice, and security. Notwithstanding the cult's rapid growth and public visibility since 2000, it is deeply embedded in Mexico's religious and cultural history. The analysis of material culture, theology, and ritual demonstrates the importance of devotional intimacy. This Element also studies how gender, family, leadership, and political relations intersect with the cult. Santa Muerte popular religiosity is examined in terms of socioeconomic vulnerabilities, ineffective social protections, exclusion, and existential insecurities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009446617
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/27/2025
Series:	Elements in New Religious Movements
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.20(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Origins and background of Santa Muerte devotion; 2. Material culture and spaces of Santa Muerte devotion; 3. Ritual and theology of Santa Muerte devotion; 4. The organization and politics of Santa Muerte devotion; 5. Santa Muerte devotion and society: vulnerability, insecurity, and the Roman Catholic church; References.