Santa Muerte Devotion
Vulnerability, Protection, Intimacy

By (author) Wil G. Pansters

ISBN13: 9781009619707

Imprint: Cambridge University Press

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Format: Hardback

Published: 30/04/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
In recent decades the cult of Santa Muerte has become a remarkable phenomenon in Mexico's popular religious landscape, from where it has migrated abroad. Due to the uncommon iconography of the robed skeleton and the association with criminality, the Santa Muerte cult has been the object of public controversy. This Element deconstructs mainstream views of Santa Muerte devotion by privileging the voices and practices of devotees. Counterintuitively, Santa Muerte devotion is about assuring a good life in health, work, love, justice, and security. Notwithstanding the cult's rapid growth and public visibility since 2000, it is deeply embedded in Mexico's religious and cultural history. The analysis of material culture, theology, and ritual demonstrates the importance of devotional intimacy. This Element also studies how gender, family, leadership, and political relations intersect with the cult. Santa Muerte popular religiosity is examined in terms of socioeconomic vulnerabilities, ineffective social protections, exclusion, and existential insecurities.
Introduction; 1. Origins and background of Santa Muerte devotion; 2. Material culture and spaces of Santa Muerte devotion; 3. Ritual and theology of Santa Muerte devotion; 4. The organization and politics of Santa Muerte devotion; 5. Santa Muerte devotion and society: vulnerability, insecurity, and the Roman Catholic church; References.
  • Alternative belief systems
  • Material culture
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List Price: £49.99