A classic twentieth-century work in the anthropology of Catholicism Person and God in a Spanish Valley is a moving portrait of how individuals and communities in a remote, mountainous valley of northern Spain relate to the divine. In the late 1960s, anthropologist and historian William A. Christian, Jr., conducted groundbreaking fieldwork in the Nansa Valley, one of the most devout regions of Spain. With sensitivity and uncommon insight, Christian describes the complex system of shrines, devotions, and pilgrimages that existed in the region for centuries, and recounts the disruption of the valley’s traditional way of life as young priests from urban centers arrived carrying a more modern, Vatican II version of Catholicism. Person and God in a Spanish Valley places Catholic faith and practice within a broader history of agrarian politics and reform in northern Spain, and stands as a landmark work of modern anthropology.

The description for this book, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain, will be forthcoming.

The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

Demystifying the Sacred: Blasphemy and Violence from the French Revolution to Today offers a much-needed analysis of a subject that historians have largely ignored, yet that has considerable relevance for today’s world: the powerful connection that exists between offences against the sacred and different forms of violence. Drawing on cases from revolutionary France to the Russia of Vladimir Putin, the international authors probe the nature and agency of local blasphemy accusations, the historical and legal framework in which they were expressed and the violence, both physical and symbolic, accompanying them. In doing so, the volume reveals how cultures of blasphemy, and related acts of heresy, apostasy and sacrilege, were a companion to or acted as a trigger for physical action but also a form of how violence was experienced. More generally, it shows the importance of religious sensibilities in modern society and the violent potential contained in criticism or ridicule of the sacred and secular alike.

To study the medieval roots of the experience of apparitions, William Christian analyzes direct accounts of appearances of Mary and other saints in rural Spain from 1399 to 1523. Drawing on verbatim testimony from children, farmers, shepherds, and servants, in addition to his own visits to the villages and his presence at a number of contemporary visions, he reveals people's experience of both the world of daily life and the world of images in their minds. Using notarized investigations of the apparitions by church and village authorities in parish, diocesan, and national archives, Dr. Christian also describes the reactions of skepticism and devotion the visions provoked in the local community and the reasons why the seers' accounts were accepted or rejected. The author first examines visions in Castile and Catalonia and their antecedents in monastic lore, sermon stories, and shrine legends. He then discusses the prosecution of visionaries by the Inquisition at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Finally, he compares the church's criteria for verifying these apparitions with those applied in France to the visions of Jeanne d'Arc. An appendix contains the original Castilian and Catalan texts. -- from dust jacket.

"Waldren's engaging book is carefully crafted . . . a superior guide to both the structure and meaning of community and the pleasures of daily life." - Choice ". . . solid accounts of the concepts and social practices related to the casa . . . patronage, and social hierarchy . . . [Waldren] also devotes attention to some less traditional concerns, such as gender, conceptions of social space, tourism, and economic development." - American Anthropologist The indigenous population of Deià has lived side by side with increasing numbers of foreigners over the past century, and what has occurred there over this period offers an example of how the population of one Mediterranean village has gained full advantage from the economic opportunities opened up by foreign investments, without losing the fabric of social relations, the meaning and values of their culture. Deià has been able to continue as a community with its own symbolic boundaries and identity, not in spite of the outsiders (some of whom are well-known literary personalities, artists and musicians) but because of their presence. This study shows how, under the impact of wars, migration, national politics, global economic and technological developments and especially tourism, the categories of Insider and Outsider are contracted and expanded, and reinterpreted to fit the constantly changing "reality" of the society; they assume different meanings at different times. The conflicts and resulting compromises over a hundred-year period have provided a sense of history that allows each group to define, develop, adapt and sustain their sense of belonging to their own communities.

Contemporary distinctions between religion and spirituality can often be traced to rebellion against hierarchical institutions with biases towards women and minorities that constrain individual freedom. This opposition is carefully addressed in this volume, with greater attention paid to gender and power in the context of contemporary spirituality and how these relate to the distinction between religion and spirituality.

Paul J. Vanderwood offers a fascinating look at the events, beliefs, and circumstances that have motivated popular devotion to Juan Soldado, a Mexican folk saint. In his mortal incarnation, Juan Soldado was Juan Castillo Morales, a twenty-four-year-old soldier convicted of and quickly executed for the rape and murder of eight-year-old Olga Camacho in Tijuana in 1938. Immediately after Morales’s death, many people began to doubt the evidence of his guilt, or at least the justice of his brutal execution. People reported seeing blood seeping from his grave and hearing his soul cry out protesting his innocence. Soon the “martyred” Morales was known as Juan Soldado, or John the Soldier. Believing that those who have died unjustly sit closest to God, people began visiting Morales’s grave asking for favors. Within months of his death, the young soldier had become a popular saint. He is not recognized by the Catholic Church, yet thousands of people have made pilgrimages to his gravesite. While Juan Soldado is well known in Tijuana, southern California’s Mexican American community, and beyond, this book is the first to situate his story within a broader exploration of how and why popular canonizations such as his take root and flourish. In addition to conducting extensive archival research, Vanderwood interviewed central actors in the events of 1938, including Olga Camacho’s mother, citizens who rioted to demand Morales’s release to a lynch mob, those who witnessed his execution, and some of the earliest believers in his miraculous powers. Vanderwood also interviewed many present-day visitors to the shrine at Morales’s grave. He describes them, their petitions—for favors such as health, a good marriage, or safe passage into the United States—and how they reconcile their belief in Juan Soldado with their Catholicism. Vanderwood puts the events of 1938 within the context of Depression-era Tijuana and he locates people’s devotion, then and now, within the history of extra-institutional religious activity. In Juan Soldado, a gripping true-crime mystery opens up into a much larger and more elusive mystery of faith and belief.

Located in Southwest Collection.