Of wonders and wise men : religion and popular cultures in southeast Mexico, 1800-1876 / by Terry Rugeley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rugeley, Terry, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--Mexico, Southeast--19th century.

Popular culture.

Mexico, Southeast--Church history--19th century.

Mexico, Southeast.

Mexico, Southeast--Civilization--19th century.

Mexico, Southeast--Religion--19th century.

Mexico, Southeast--Religious life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (366 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the tumultuous decades following Mexico's independence from Spain, religion provided a unifying force among the Mexican people, who otherwise varied greatly in ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Accordingly, religion and the popular cultures surrounding it form the lens through which Terry Rugeley focuses this cultural history of southeast Mexico from independence (1821) to the rise of the dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1876. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused archival material, Rugeley vividly reconstructs the folklore, beliefs, attitudes, and cultural practices of the Maya and Hispanic peoples of the Yucatán. In engagingly written chapters, he explores folklore and folk wisdom, urban piety, iconography, and anticlericalism. Interspersed among the chapters are detailed portraits of individual people, places, and institutions, that, with the archival evidence, offer a full and fascinating history of the outlooks, entertainments, and daily lives of the inhabitants of southeast Mexico in the nineteenth century. Rugeley also links this rich local history with larger events to show how macro changes in Mexico affected ordinary people.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

A Note on Orthography

Introduction. Strange Lights, Mysterious Crosses, and theWord of GodDenied

Chapter 1. Geography, Misery, Agency, Remedy: The Unwritten Almanac of Folk Knowledge

Chapter 2. Rural Curas and the Erosion of Mexican Conservatism: The Life of Raymundo Pérez

Chapter 3. The Bourgeois Spiritual Path: A History of Urban Piety

Chapter 4. Spiritual Power,Worldly Possession: A History of Imágenes

Chapter 5. Official Cult and Peasant Protocol: Rural Cofradías and the History of San Antonio Xocneceh

Chapter 6. A Culture of Conflict: Anticlericalism, Parish Problems, and Alternative Beliefs

Chapter 7. ‘‘Burning the Torch of Revolution’’ Religion, Nationalism, and the Loss of the Petén

Conclusion: The Motives for Miracle

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-328) and index.

ISBN:

0-292-79817-2

OCLC:

560580582