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Syncretism, Revitalization and Conversion

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RELIGIOUS SYNTHESIS AND CHANGE IN THE NEW WORLD: SYNCRETISM, REVITALIZATION AND CONVERSION by Stephen L. Selka, Jr. A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 1997 ABSTRACT Author: Stephen L. Selka. Jr. Title: Religious Synthesis and Change in the New World: Syncretism, Revitalization and Conversion Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Gerald Weiss, Ph.D. Degree: Master of Arts Year: 1997 Cases of syncretism from the New World and other areas, with a concentration on Latin America and the Caribbean, are reviewed in order to investigate the hypothesis that structural and symbolic homologies between interacting religions are preconditions for religious syncretism. In addition, definitions and models of, as well as frameworks for, syncretism are discussed in light of the ethnographic evidence. Syncretism is also discussed with respect to both revitalization movements and the recent rise of conversion to Protestantism in Latin America and the Caribbean. The discussion of syncretism and other kinds of religious change is related to va~ious theoretical perspectives, particularly those concerning the relationship of cosmologies to the existential conditions of social life and the connection between religion and world view, attitudes, and norms. 11 RELIGIOUS SYNTHESIS AND CHANGE lN THE NEW WORLD: SYNCRETISM. REVITALIZATION AND CONVERSION by Stephen L. Selka. Jr. This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor. Dr. Gerald Weiss. Department of Anthropology, and has been approved by the members of his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ~0~~ .l?r. Gerald Weiss Thesis Advisor 7 <:::; Chairperson. Department of Anthropology Date Ill ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis chair, Dr. Gerald Weiss, and my committee members, Dr. Susan Love Brown and Dr. Santo Tarantino, for their guidance with this project. I would like to thank Dr. Weiss especially for undertaking the painstaking task of editing my sometimes disjointed and often messy drafts. I would also like to thank my family, especially my father, for the constant support. To my roommates, Chris and Dan, to Dulce and the many other good friends that I have made over the past two years, and to Heather, I would like to offer thanks for your moral support, encouragement, and tolerance. lV Table of Contents List ofTables . vi Introduction: Research Problem and Methods . 1 Statement ofPurpose . 1 Survey of the Literature . 2 Hypothesis ..................................................... 4 Methods and Research Area . 4 Overview of Thesis Organization .................................... 6 Definition, Models and Frameworks . 9 Definition . 9 Models ....................................................... 17 Frameworks ................................................... 33 Theoretical Perspectives . 41 General Considerations .......................................... 42 The Ordering Process and the World-response ......................... 43 Behind Symbolic Systems : Plausibility Structures . 44 World-Responses .............................................. 47 Ethnohistorical and Ethnographic Data: The Influence of Catholicism . 56 Primary Cases of Syncretism: Catholicism in Mesoamerica, the Andes, Haiti and Brazil ................................................ 56 Additional Cases of Syncretism with Catholicism . 90 Ethnohistorical and Ethnographic Data: The Rise ofProtestantism .............. 100 Analysis, Discussion and Conclusion . 120 Analysis of the Ethnographic Data ................................. 120 General Discussion . 134 Conclusion . 144 References Cited . 146 v List of Tables Table I.--Analysis ofEthnographic Data by Area and Case, Type of Contact, Occurrence of the Borrowing of Elements Between the Interacting Religions, and the Emergence ofNew Syncretic Configurations ......................... 124 Table 2.--Sumrnary of Ethnographic Cases by Result of Contact (Syncretism, No Syncretism, Conversion) and the Number of Instances ofEach Resulting from Catholic and Protestant Contact . 127 vi Chapter I Introduction: Research Problem and Methods "If the anthropological study of religion is in fact in a state of general stagnation, I doubt that it will get going again by producing more minor variations on classical theoretical themes. Yet one more meticulous case in point for such well-established propositions as that ancestor worship supports the jural authority of elders . or that myths provide charters for social institutions and rationalizations of social privilege, may well finally convince a great many people, both inside the profession and out, that anthropologists are, like theologians, firmly dedicated to proving the indubitable" (Geertz 1973 :88). Statement of Purpose My thesis has three primary objectives. The first is to provide a meaningful and useful definition and model of religious syncretism to be placed in a larger framework of cultural change and compared to other types of religious change. This includes the identification of preconditions for, stages in, types ot: and patterns associated with the process of syncretism. The second is to investigate, through a survey of the ethnographic literature, the contention that certain similarities between interacting religions are preconditions for syncretism, such as Camara (1988) has argued. The third is to draw 1 generalizations from my comparison of my ethnographic sources and to develop an explanatory framework that accounts for the occurrence of syncretism versus other types of religious change resulting from culture contact, such as conversion and revitalization movements. In this thesis I propose a definition and model of syncretism that is synthesized from the important works of earlier authors and based on a comparative survey of the ethnographic data, such as Wallace (1956; 1966) has done for revitalization movements. I aim not only to provide a descriptive characterization of syncretic religions, but to investigate explanatory systems that account for the various types of religious change that result from culture contact. I investigate what syncretism and other types of religious change reveal about the relationship of religion to the other facets of cultural systems and to total cultural systems. More specifically, I examine the connection between (1) the principles, themes and patterns that are inherent and recognizable in a religion's cosmology and are expressed in attitudes (the emotional and evaluative responses) and norms (behavioral rules) prescribed by the religion, all of these taken together as the world-response of the religion, and (2) the existential conditions to which the cultural system must adapt itself and the life experiences of the individuals who are members of that cultural system. Survey of the Literature There is a wealth of documented cases of syncretism from all over the world. 2 Here I restrict my survey primarily to Latin America and the Caribbean, although I include "representative" cases from other areas. In general, I found that there is lack of agreement as to how syncretism should be defined, and attempts to place the concept within a larger analytical framework of cultural and religious change or to compare and synthesize ethnographic accounts are somewhat scarce. The general treatments of the topic I found included a collection of essays on interreligious dialogue and case studies edited by Gort, Vroom, Fernhout, and Vessels (1989); a discussion ofMaya and Aztec syncretism with Christianity and of the study ofboth nativism and syncretism in anthropological science by Edmonson, Thompson, Correa and Madsen (1960); and Stewart and Shaw's (1994) volume of articles that address the politics of discourses about syncretism as part of the politics of religious synthesis. In addition, there are a number of sources that propose models or theories of syncretism based on case studies, such as Bartelt's ( 1991) application of schema theory to the contemporary southern Californian powwow; Camara's (1988) discussion of the similarities of African religion to Catholicism and the differences between both of these religions and Protestantism, as well as how this led to the formation of African/Catholic syncretic religions in Brazil and to the lack of syncretism in areas of African/Protestant contact in the U.S.; Morrison's (1990) use of the ideas of Victor Turner in order to explain Montagnais/Jesuit syncretism in Canada; Nutini's (1976; 1988a; 1988b) model of the syncretic process based on ethnohistoric and contemporary data from Mexico; and Watanabe's (1990) examination ofthe recombinant patterning of symbols in Maya/Catholic syncretism. 3 Hypothesis In order for religious syncretism to occur, certain similarities (symbolic and structural homologies) between the interacting religions must be present. In cases in which important similarities are absent, and the religions are therefore incompatible, the "introduced" religion may be rejected or non-syncretic conversion may occur. I will operationalize this hypothesis by identifying Camara's (1988) list of resemblances between African religions and Brazilian Catholicism as the important characteristics or structures that must be present
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