Re-enchanting the world
Subtitle: Maya Protestantism in the Guatemalan highlands
By: C. Mathews Samson
Series: Contemporary American Indian studies
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
ISBN-13: 9780817315665; 9780817354275
Subjects: Mam Indians -- Religion; Mam Indians -- Social conditions; Cakchikel Indians -- Religion; Cakchikel Indians -- Social conditions; Indian Presbyterians -- Guatemala; Presbyterian Church -- Guatemala; Guatemala -- Religious life and customs; Guatemala -- Social life and customs
Description: This book is about Christian evangelicals among native people in Latin America. What does it mean to be both Maya and Protestant in Guatemala? Burgeoning religious pluralism in Mesoamerica and throughout Latin America is evident as Protestantism permeates a region that had been overwhelmingly Catholic for nearly five centuries. In considering the interplay between contemporary Protestant practice and native cultural traditions among Maya evangelicals, Samson documents the processes whereby some Maya have converted to new forms of Christianity and the ways in which the Maya are incorporating Christianity for their own purposes. At the intersection of religion and cultural pluralism, contemporary evangelicals focus on easing the tension between Maya identity and the Protestant insistence that old ways must be left behind in the conversion process. Against the backdrop of the 36-year civil way that ended in 1996 and the rise of the indigenous Maya Movement in the late 1980s, this work provides a unique portrait of social movements, cultural and human rights, and the role that religion plays in relation to the nation-state in post-conflict political processes. Re-enchanting the World fills a niche within the anthropological literature on evangelicals in Latin America during a time of significant social change. - Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-188) and index
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Encountering religious change in Guatemala; title: Re-enchanting the world : identity and religious change; title: A humanistic approach to a post-conflict society; title: The national context : war, peace accords, and the Maya movement; title: Maya Protestantism in Guatemala; title: Identity in word and place : the Mam presbytery; title: An activist Protestantism : the Kaqchikel presbytery; title: Conclusions: Contextualizing Maya Protestant practice