Protestantism and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Oaxaca
Protestantism and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Oaxaca
In this fascinating book Kathleen M. McIntyre traces intra-village conflicts stemming from Protestant conversion in southern Mexico and successfully demonstrates that both Protestants and Catholics deployed cultural identity as self-defense in clashes over local power and authority. McIntyre’s study approaches religious competition through an examination of disputes over tequio (collective work projects) and cargo (civil-religious hierarchy) participation. By framing her study between the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Zapatista uprising of 1994, she demonstrates the ways Protestant conversion fueled regional and national discussions over the state’s conceptualization of indigenous citizenship and the parameters of local autonomy. The book’s timely scholarship is an important addition to the growing literature on transnational religious movements, gender, and indigenous identity in Latin America.
A groundbreaking study of religious conflict in Oaxaca. McIntyre’s insightful book illuminates the often hidden foundations of suffering and violence that undergird the establishment and rapid growth of Protestantism in Latin America.
McIntyre has expanded the chronological and spatial bounds of previous work on Protestantism in Mexico to Oaxaca in creative and useful ways. In particular, her examination of the intersection of indigenous and religious identity after 1940 should mark a path for scholars to take religion in the period more seriously, and to do so in the context of wider community networks.
Kathleen M. McIntyre is an assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One. "As Fast as Men and Means Are Furnished": Protestant Missions during the Porfiriato
Chapter Two. "La sangre está clamando justicia": Constructing Martyrdom in Postrevolutionary Oaxaca
Chapter Three. Contested Spaces: Local Conflicts, CONEDEF, and the Mexican State
Chapter Four. The Summer Institute of Linguistics in Oaxaca
Chapter Five. Liberation Theology, Indigenous Rights, and Nationalism
Chapter Six. "Here the People Rule": Customary Law and State Formation
Conclusion. Reimagining Communities
Notes
Bibliography
Index
