Alone at the Altar : Single Women and Devotion in Guatemala, 1670-1870 / Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leavitt-Alcántara, Brianna, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Guatemala--History.

Catholic Church.

Single women--Religious life--Guatemala--History.

Single women.

Guatemala--Religious life and customs.

Guatemala.

Guatemala--Church history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

By 1700, Guatemala's capital was a mixed-race "city of women." As in many other cities across colonial Spanish America, labor and migration patterns in Guatemala produced an urban female majority and high numbers of single women, widows, and female household heads. In this history of religious and spiritual life in the Guatemalan capital, Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara focuses on the sizeable population of ordinary, non-elite women living outside of both marriage and convent. Although officials often expressed outright hostility towards poor unmarried women, many of these women managed to position themselves at the forefront of religious life in the city. Through an analysis of over 500 wills, hagiographies, religious chronicles, and ecclesiastical records, Alone at the Altar examines how laboring women forged complex alliances with Catholic priests and missionaries and how those alliances significantly shaped local religion, the spiritual economy, and late colonial reform efforts. It considers the local circumstances and global Catholic missionary movements that fueled official collaboration with poor single women and support for diverse models of feminine piety. Extending its analysis past Guatemalan Independence to 1870, this book also illuminates how women's alliances with the Catholic Church became politicized in the Independence era and influenced the rise of popular conservatism in Guatemala.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Tables, Maps, and Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part one. Spiritual Capital: Devotional Networks and a Religious Renaissance

Part two. Shifting Foundations: Reform, Revolution, and Spiritual Renewal

Epilogue

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9781503604391

150360439X

OCLC:

1178769295