The Anthropology of Catholicism: A Reader

by Kristin Norget (Editor), Valentina Napolitano (Editor), Maya Mayblin (Editor)

Overview

Aimed at a wide audience of readers, The Anthropology of Catholicism is the first companion guide to this burgeoning field within the anthropology of Christianity. Bringing to light Catholicism’s long but comparatively ignored presence within the discipline of anthropology, the book introduces readers to key studies in the field, as well as to current analyses on the present and possible futures of Catholicism globally. This reader provides both ethnographic material and theoretical reflections on Catholicism around the world, demonstrating how a revised anthropology of Catholicism can generate new insights and analytical frameworks that will impact anthropology as well as other disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520288447
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/24/2017
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kristin Norget is Associate Professor of Anthropology at McGill University.

Valentina Napolitano is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Maya Mayblin is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: The Anthropology of Catholicism Maya Mayblin Kristin Norget Valentma Napalitano 1

Part 1 A Genealogy of the Anthropology of Catholicism

1 Excerpt from "St Besse: A Study of an Alpine Cult" Robert Hertz 33

2 Excerpt from "Tarantism and Catholicism" Ernesto de Martino 43

3 Excerpt from "The Place of Grace in Anthropology" Julian A. Pitt-Rivers 52

4 Excerpt from "The Dinka and Catholicism" Godfrey Lienhardt 63

5 Excerpt from "Iconophily and Iconoclasm in Marian Pilgrimage" Victor Turner Edith Turner 71

6 Excerpt from Person and God in a Spanish Valley William A. Christian 80

7 Excerpt from "The Priest as Agent of Secularization in Rural Spain" Stanley H. Brandes 89

8 Excerpt from "Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the Thirteenth Century" Caroline Walker Bynum 96

Part 2 Contemporary Works in the Anthropology of Catholicism

9 "Complexio Oppositorum"? Religion, Society, and Power in the Making of Catholicism in Rural South India David Mosse 105

10 Marking Memory: Heritage Work and Devotional Labor at Quebec's Croix de Chemin Hillary Kaell 122

11 Containment and Contagion: The Gender of Sin in Contemporary Catholicism Maya Mayblin 139

12 Opulence and Simplicity: The Question of Tension in Syrian Catholicism Andreas Bandak 155

13 The Paradox of Charismatic Catholicism: Rupture and Continuity in a Q'eqchi'-Maya Parish Eric Hoenes del Pinal 170

14 The Virgin of Guadalupe and Spectacles of Catholic Evangelism in Mexico Kristin Norget 184

15 The Rosary as a Meditation on Death at a Marian Apparition Shrine Ellen Badone 201

16 A Catholic Body? Miracles, Secularity, and the Porous Self in Malta Jon P. Mitchell 211

17 Experiments of Inculturation in a Catholic Charismatic Movement in Cameroon Ludovic Lado 227

18 On a Political Economy of Political Theology: El Señor de los Milagros Valentina Napolitano 243

19 Making a Home in an Unfortunate Place: Phenomenology and Religion J. Michelle Molina 256

Part 3 Interventions in the Anthropology of Catholicism

20 "We're All Catholics Now" Simon Coleman 273

21 What Is Catholic about the Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis? Robert A. Orsi 282

22 Possession and Psychopathology, Faith and Reason Thomas J. Csordas 293

23 Catholicism and the Study of Religion Birgit Meyer 305

24 The Media of Sensation Niklaus Largier 316

Bibliography 327

List of Contributors 357

Index 361

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, the book brings needed shape and specificity to an otherwise amorphous field of study.... Summing Up: Highly recommended."

CHOICE