We See Altars, but Their Meaning Is Unknown

The Material Support for Lived Religiosity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v3n5.141

Keywords:

lived religiosity, altars, popular Catholicism, religious images, materiality, aesthetics

Abstract

This work consists of a photographic essay about domestic altars accompanied by their owners’ narratives. It aims to address the Catholic religiosity which is practiced on a daily basis in non-ecclesial spaces. This ethnographic work (based on photographic records and interviews) is focused on the altars’ materialism (which makes beliefs visible) and on narratives giving account of their symbolic meanings as well as appropriations and uses of Catholic images in the believers’ daily lives. We deal with three scenarios for the assembly and practice of these shrines; domestic (they are usually private, individual and are located inside the homes). Semi-private (in workplaces such as offices, market stalls, bars and workshops), which even though they are cared for by only one person they are exposed to the public and used for religious practices by those who attend these places. Public ones (streets or neighborhoods) are placed in open spaces (a sidewalk, square or street corner), activate collective practices and are often protected by a community. We consider it a novel methodological proposal to approach the understanding of these religious experiences on their non-ecclesial logic.

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Author Biographies

  • Renee De la Torre, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social - Occidente

    Renée de la Torre Castellanos  holds a PhD in Social Sciences with a specialty in Social Anthropology and has been a research professor at CIESAS, Unidad Occidente, since 1993. She is a member of the National System of Researchers (Mexico) level III and Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Her different researches have as a central interest the study and understanding of contemporary religiosity, with special emphasis on the study of its transformation. Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3914-4805?lang=en

  • Anel Victoria Salas, Universidad de Guadalajara

    Anel Victoria Salas holds a degree in Sociology with a specialty in culture from the University of Guadalajara, currently she is a research assistant in the project Lived Religion: religiosity in everyday life through domestic altars, coordinated by Renée de la Torre. Co-participant in the project Religion and society in Mexico: recompositions from experience and practical sense, coordinated by Nahayeilli Juárez, Cristina Gutiérrez Zúñiga and Renée de la Torre.

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Published

2020-03-24

How to Cite

We See Altars, but Their Meaning Is Unknown: The Material Support for Lived Religiosity. (2020). Encartes, 3(5), 206-226. https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v3n5.141