
Mary, Michael, and Lucifer
Folk Catholicism in Central Mexico
John M. Ingham(Author)
University of Texas Press
Published on 1. June 1986
Book
Paperback/Softback
228 pages
978-0-292-75110-1 (ISBN)
Description
The physical signs of Roman Catholicism pervade the Mexican countryside. Colonial churches and neighborhood chapels, wayside shrines, and mountaintop crosses dot the landscape. Catholicism also permeates the traditional cultures of rural communities, although this ideational influence is less immediately obvious. It is often couched in enigmatic idiom and imagery, and it is further obscured by the vestiges of pagan customs and the anticlerical attitudes of many villagers. These heterodox tendencies have even led some observers to conclude that Catholicism in rural Mexico is little more than a thin veneer on indigenous practice.
In Mary, Michael, and Lucifer John M. Ingham attempts to develop a modern semiotic and structuralist interpretation of traditional Mexican culture, an interpretation that accounts for the culture's apparent heterodoxy. Drawing on field research in Tlayacapan, Morelos, a village in the central highlands, he shows that nearly every domain of folk culture is informed with religious meaning. More precisely, the Catholic categories of spirit, nature, and evil compose the basic framework of the villagers' social relations and subjective experiences.
In Mary, Michael, and Lucifer John M. Ingham attempts to develop a modern semiotic and structuralist interpretation of traditional Mexican culture, an interpretation that accounts for the culture's apparent heterodoxy. Drawing on field research in Tlayacapan, Morelos, a village in the central highlands, he shows that nearly every domain of folk culture is informed with religious meaning. More precisely, the Catholic categories of spirit, nature, and evil compose the basic framework of the villagers' social relations and subjective experiences.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
347 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-75110-1 (9780292751101)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John M. Ingham is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Content
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Setting, People, and Village
3. History
4. The Family
5. Ritual Kinship
6. The Faces of Evil
7. The Ceremonial Cycle
8. The Struggle with Evil
9. Los Aires
10. Syncretism and Social Meanings: An Overview
Notes
Bibliography
Index
1. Introduction
2. Setting, People, and Village
3. History
4. The Family
5. Ritual Kinship
6. The Faces of Evil
7. The Ceremonial Cycle
8. The Struggle with Evil
9. Los Aires
10. Syncretism and Social Meanings: An Overview
Notes
Bibliography
Index