Santa Muerte as Emerging Dangerous Religion?
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 6
Abstract
Santa Muerte is one of the fastest growing folk saint movements in Mexico. She has a core following in Mexico among dispossessed populations, but also devotees from a broader swath of the Mexican population. This article analyzes the development of Santa Muerte veneration in Mexico since 2000. I argue that, from a structural analysis perspective, Santa Muerte veneration is on the threshold of designation and treatment as dangerous religion, although its eventual status remains contingent. The movement’s status will be determined by three interacting factors: (1) a core membership of outsider and dispossessed populations; (2) symbolic and social organization in a form that challenges the legitimacy and authority of the institutions of church and state; and (3) institutional control measures that contest the legitimacy of its symbolic presentation and organizational practices. I suggest several alternative developmental scenarios based on these factors.
Authors and Affiliations
David G. Bromley
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25562
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7060065
- Views 329
- Downloads 7
A Qualitative Content Analysis of Spirituality and Religiosity amongst Greek COPD Patients
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic and common disease throughout the world. Spiritual/religious beliefs are often central to patients with serious illnesses and could serve as a resource for copi...
Introducing Cardinal Cardijn’s See–Judge–Act as an Interdisciplinary Method to Move Theory into Practice
Interdisciplinary dialogues find researchers seeking better understandings of theories and concepts, such colonialism and capitalism, and the means through which these concepts impact both local and global cultures. Th...
A European (German) View on Comparative Theology: Dialogue with My Own Past
For the last couple of years, particularly after the publication of the (German) book ―Comparative Theology‖ by Bernhold Reinhardt and Klaus von Stosch, there was a significant attentiveness of this subject amongst Ger...
Auguste Comte and Consensus Formation in American Religious Thought—Part 1: The Creation of Consensus
French intellectual Auguste Comte was the most influential sociologist and philosopher of science in the Nineteenth Century. This first of two articles summarizes his complex life’s works and details reactions to them...
“Nothing Sacred”: Violence, Time and Meaning in the Cinema of Possibilities
Hemingway’s disenchantment with the idea of the sacred as expressed in A Farewell to Arms became a defining aspect of the modern experience including in some Hollywood films such as Nothing Sacred and Twentieth Century...