Abstract
This chapter examines the production of embodied religious landscapes in the high provinces of rural Peru. I begin by outlining two trends in the study of religious landscapes: one focused on the social relations surrounding built landscapes and the other engaging with the lived or embodied religious landscapes, including the narratives and stories which construct them. I then consider the ways that embodied religious landscapes in Peru contribute to a particular kind of provocation (Massey, J Mater Cult 11(1–2):33–48, 2006) or “myth” which suggests that religious change and the growth of Evangelical Protestantism are linked to economic success. I conclude by suggesting that these stories and symbols are essential for understanding fully the social production of religious landscapes.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
I acknowledge that this is a problematic assertion in the context of spiritualism (see, for instance, Holloway 2006), but even spiritualism will have landscapes that are linked to processes of identity formation or, from external perspectives, to identification.
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- 4.
Article 86 of the Constitution of 1979.
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- 6.
This is presumably a reference to the number of independent churches or groups of worship, though Armas does not clarify or provide a citation for his data.
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- 8.
It is not possible to review the evidence here, but an in-depth survey of households revealed that perceptions of economic difference were primarily based on: (1) the higher proportion of Evangelicals who were migrants into the region and had converted to Evangelical faiths while working at mines and earning a wage which they were able to invest into their farms; (2) the geographic location of particular Evangelical annexes of the community, which required them to rely on animal husbandry rather than subsistence crops, thus focusing their production on trade at regional markets; (3) lack of spending on alcohol among Evangelicals; and (4) popular impressions that Evangelicals had more international links than Catholics.
- 9.
All places and persons have been given pseudonyms in this paper.
- 10.
This is likely a reference to the Virgin Asunta, another saint of Hanocca.
- 11.
The bishop of one prelate was advised that the southern Andes should send representatives to episcopal meetings in Rome in order to defend themselves from charges of supporting leftist politics and movements.
- 12.
Carlos Pojul, 16 January 1998 ABC Literario (http://www.javiermarias.es/PAGINASDECRITICAS/criticasmiramientos.html).
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Acknowledgements
This research for this study was funded by a dissertation improvement grant from the National Science Foundation, and support for writing was provided through a fellowship from the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado. Special thanks to Timothy Oakes, Anthony Bebbington, Rachel Silvey, and Peter Hopkins for their comments on earlier versions.
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Olson, E. (2013). Myth, Miramiento, and the Making of Religious Landscapes. In: Hopkins, P., Kong, L., Olson, E. (eds) Religion and Place. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4685-5_5
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