Religious Fragmentation and Social Disintegration: On the Impact of Evangelical Protestantism in Rural Andean Bolivia

• In Event: 349 - Section on Sociology of Development Paper Session. Emerging Issues in the Sociology of Development

Abstract

Religious change across the predominantly Catholic Latin America is bringing with it far-reaching social change as well. Observations of increasing religious diversity has enlivened the core debates in the sociology of religion, which uses the concept of religious pluralism to counter the secularization thesis that modernity necessarily brings about the decline of religion. In this paper, I suggest that the language of religious pluralism overlooks the tensions brought about by religious change. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork in two rural villages in highland Bolivia, this paper argues that the impacts of religious conversion are more usefully seen through the lens of fragmentation. As the supremacy of Catholic institutions, practices, and hierarchies are challenged, religious fragmentation can be a highly contentious process and lead to the cleavage of existing social networks along religious lines. This paper first examines the contested nature of increasing religious diversity. Second, I examine how religious fragmentation impacts existing social networks and relationships, paying particular attention to reciprocity networks, which are culturally and economically significant in these indigenous communities. I argue that the question of whether religious fragmentation leads to social fragmentation depends on the practices undertaken through these networks, and pay particular attention to the role of alcohol consumption.

Author

• Marygold B. Walsh-Dilley, University of New Mexico