Search

This text explores the religiosity of the African people in Latin America after their arrival during the slavery process since the 16th century. It focuses on the cult of San Benito Agé, highlighting his ancestral codes transmitted orally and his rituals in the towns of the south of Lake Maracaibo to the present day. The sources used are studies on Africanity in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as testimonies of cultists collected in an ethnographic investigation presented by researcher Evelyn Canaán, mentioned throughout the text. This approach is framed in the historical-narrative-oral context that highlights the uniqueness of the ancestral codes in the cultural-lacustrine and symbolic syncretism of the Agé people, manifesting through the drum, testimony, word and song. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim is to relieve the debate between doctors and spiritualists during the first Peronist government (1946-1955), with the creation of the Instituto de Psicopatología Aplicada [Institute of Applied Psychopathology] (IPA), which firmly adhered to the idea that social eugenics fulfilled a health role among those who cultivated mediumistic practices. The IPA was an entity led by doctor Ramón Carrillo, an Argentinean sanitarist, made up of doctors interested in the scientific study of mediums, who released to the neurologist Orlando Canavesio, who coined the socalled "deviations" of Spiritualism practices. This purpose was a marker between the goverment and medical science around the problem of mediumistic practices, which pointed particularly towards the activity of the Kardecist societies grouped under the Argentine Spiritualist Confederation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the messianic idea is present not only in the beliefs and practices of fundamentalist groups but also in other areas of modern life, such as in certain scientific discourses that warn of the end of the world, as well as in celebrations and religious conflicts. To understand its current importance, I propose to adopt a post-secular approach that does not sharply distinguish the religious-spiritual from the modern or secular rational thought, precisely because messianism (or the messianic idea) articulates and gives meaning to a series of actions of a very diverse nature that are directly related to the preparation of people to try to shape the future already foreseen. In the first place, I locate the contemporaneity of the messianic idea. Then, I analyze how two versions of messianism confront each other in a particular region, the center of Michoacán: the one associated with the idea of progress versus pious devotion. Finally, based on ethnographic material, I present a description of the religious offering as an expression of gift, as a popular version of the messianic realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes, from the perspective of textual criticism, two stories by the Campeche writer Santiago Sierra (1850-1880): "Flor de fuego" and "Flor del dolor," which are part of the series that he published under the title "Flores." This work is intended to contribute to the construction of the genetic history of these texts, through the exposition and interpretation of the significant author variants that exist between the first version, which appeared in the Veracruz newspaper Violetas, in 1869, and the second and last version published in the pages of El Domingo, between 1871 and 1872. The comparison of the two versions of these "Flores" reveals interesting variants that allow us to appreciate the transition in his aesthetic proposal from the assimilation of the doctrine of Allan Kardec. The study shows the process of transformation from the occultist substrate to the spiritualist, as the foundation of the fantastic or the supernatural in the stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a linear reading of the different sayings of Saint John of the Cross, having as its main axis the image of the itinerary, which in a certain sense reflects the inner dynamics of all the sayings of Saint John. The Andújar Manuscript will be divided into five groups which will constitute the five main phases of the itinerary, while the other sayings, collected in different manuscripts, will serve as practical guidelines for these phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptual Variables in the Experience of Hearing Voices and their Relationship with Spiritual Beliefs The phenomenology of the experience of hearing voices differs from patients with psychosis who have auditory hallucinations. The aim of this study is to evaluate the type and frequency of experiences and beliefs associated with hearing voices in a non-clinical sample with an interest in paranormal/spiritual issues, and their relationship with the proneness to schizotypy, religiosity and spirituality, tendency to fantasy, hallucination and delusional ideation. Method: a sample of 202 adults who had hearing voice experiences were recruited who filled an ad hoc questionnaires on hearing experiences in the general population, beliefs in voices, religious/spiritual practices and cognitive styles and perceptual distortions. Results: it was found that those with hearing voices experiences tended to show a strong attribution both benign and malignant, indicating cognitive and emotional valence regarding the content of their voices. The results also show that the paranormal experience is related to positive but not negative schizotypy. In addition, the ability to cope, social support and commitment to religious/spiritual life were found to be relevant factors for coping with the experience of hearing voices. Those who share pre-existing spiritual worldviews may require a coherent framework to make sense of this experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to propose a model for understanding, from the perspective of philosophy, not only the philosophy-mysticism relationship but also the spirituality-mysticism-philosophy relationship, by means of a conceptual analysis, from the standpoint phenomenology and hermeneutics, which includes historical background that becomes concrete in ways involving the evolution of the notion of mysticism toward the requirement, on the part of modernity and post-modernity, that mysticism and spirituality be substantiated, and not just reduced to the qualifying adjectives that accompany other disciplines or treatises. The result is an enriching reflection based on experience taken as mediation in the context of the relationship with the Absolute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the product of research on the remarkable consistency and reproduction of traditional festivities during a period of almost 300 years in El Pueblito, Corregidora, Queretaro (Mexico). It explains how the symbolic construction and production of the meaning of social action have been configured to preserve popular traditions in the context of an accentuated process of modernization. The central proposal is that the production of meaning in these festivities is coupled in a virtuous circle through the interconnections of a rich, active collective memory, the promotion of numerous events replete with ritualism during the year, an intense sociability, and the discretionary use of territory by social actors. All of this results in a solid symbolic construction that makes the reproduction of meaning possible. The qualitative analysis was carried out considering primarily the articulation between discourses and the participation of the social actors involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into Tomás González's transcendent gaze through the comparison of three pairs of poems and short stories. In the first one, memory and oblivion are reflected on through the parallelism with the plot. In the second, the importance of reconnecting with childhood and nature is analyzed. Finally, in the third, the worldview involved in overcoming grief is studied. The texts point at the search for spiritual harmony through the reconciliation of the person with the whole and awaken the serene contemplation of human needs in the modern world, to re-signify our own experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studying the preaching of prophet writers of the Old Testament, we encounter a topic addressed by several of them: religious hypocrisy. The prophet is aware that it is not possible to participate in worship in the absence of a true interior conversion. It is incompatible to present an offering to God while failing to perform works of charity toward others; to raise a prayer to the Most High and practice idolatry; to implore divine mercy but not to forgive when an injury is received. In this article, some texts of the prophets who addressed this issue will be analyzed and an application made to the reality of today. The study is presented in chronological order to favor a better understanding of the sequence of historical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1873 a spiritualist society was born in Cieza, which lasted a short time, founded by a member of the Guirao family. I also present the life of an unknown journalist and writer from Cieza who lived in Barcelona and Madrid, relating him with important figures of his time, especially with the sculptor Julio Antonio and his partner Margarita Nelken, feminist, politician and renowned artist. Also with Juan Pujol, poet, novelist and politician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento thought that, together with the lack of racial mixing, the presence of Puritan and Quaker colonists in the United States was one of the contributing factors to the creation of a democratic political consciousness. This article systematizes this hypothesis and contrasts Sarmiento's ideas with those of Alexis de Tocqueville about the relationship between Puritanism and democracy and with those of Max Weber about the relationship between religious ethics and the secular mentality. It also shows that the explanation based on the religious factor to a great degree relativizes the characteristic racialism of Sarmiento's essays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the beatification events of various individuals. Topics include the beatification of the Ulma family, who were murdered by the Nazis in 1944, highlighting their martyrdom and dedication to agriculture in a small Polish town. Another topic covers Argentina's preparation for the canonization of its first female saint, Mama Antula, a woman ahead of her time known for her spiritual work in the northeast regions.

If we take a broad definition of the adjective 'spiritual', integrated within the most permeable and generic concept of mystical culture , we can find several Catalan miscellanies from the fourteenth to the fifteenth centuries that are worthy of this term. A careful analysis of the contents of one of them, manuscript d.IV.19 in the Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, allows us to observe that it is composed of a series of works that, from the outset, were aimed at a female readership or that have undergone a process of grammatical feminization in this copy. In other words, the masculine morphemes have been changed to others of the feminine gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iambic poetry in Ancient Greek often dates back to communal celebrations and religious rituals traced to the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. These events coincide with the Iambus, mainly featuring invective, insulting and obscene language. The present work intends to precisely look into some testimonies relating to different ceremonies of these two deities that, although late and indirectly passed on, they allow us to pick up again the threads between cultural songs and literary iambus. In fact, as can be inferred from them, it is possible to draw a continuity line between the religious and cultural context of the Eleusinian and Dionysian festivities in the archaic Greek world and the specifically literary iambic compositions that emerged around the 7th century BC. We will focus on certain Iambus of the famous poets Archilochus of Paros and Hipponax of Ephesus, which, to our knowledge, are reflections of those ancient ritual songs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To present the great work of Benedetto Croce or summarize it, in its entirety, would be an difficult and complicated task. In this place, and without aim to be exhaustive, We only want to remember some of his main observations on the juridical phenomenon, this is a part of his dialectic system that has been object of deep critics. We believe that a superficial reading and focused only in the first years of his intellectual production can mislead those who want to approach the complex spiritual dynamics of Croce's philosophy; because, certainly, it is possible to find a noble lesson, that is result of an intellectual evolution with a deep sense. We want to know if justice is placed in the economic or moral moment of the Croce's dialectic of the Spirit. More over, the dynamics of the different moments of this dialectic thinking could make us to accept that the justice of the legal phenomenon is comparable with the only satisfaction of individual interests. It will be necessary to verify, therefore, if Croce surpasses or not the conception that has made him so famous: law-economy; philosophy of law-philosophy of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elementary rural education in Argentina has had diverse functions: to literate and inculcate values for childhood socialization, to prepare pupils for integration in the productive environment, and to deal with their basic subsistence needs. This article analyses the conceptions about transformation of rural education spread by diverse technical staff and teachers with intellectual projection. The central hypothesis is that diverse offers of educational change existed, which combined strategies and instruments of the pedagogic renovation with spiritualists and utilitarian foundations. Conclusions shows that the rural education was an area where a diverse of speeches and practices where demonstrated, which knowledge enriches the comprehension of the phenomenon of educational renovation developed from the crisis of 1930 until ends of the fifties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze, through ethnographic observation of the Cemetery San Pedro in Medellin (Colombia), the recent trend of tombstones decoration in confluence with the proposal of structure and aesthetics of the social network Facebook. This correlation between the virtual language of Facebook and the ritual language of the tombs, is much more complex than a mere coincidence so we propose a thorough comparative reading of these two universes of representation for the meeting and communication, is needed to provide a better understanding of the two phenomena. Both are plethoric spaces that reveal the relentless pursuit of the subject to perpetuate their presence, to tell about their lives and deaths, to eternalize their expressions of affection, love and devotion, and to continue their social relationships despite physical or virtual distance, as scenarios with common origins and intentions, where appearing is more important than being. Currently, the "walls" of both the Cemetery and Facebook, serve as communicational sceneries that share publicly and shamelessly intimate details; where family relationships are announced; idyllic havens are displayed as photographic backgrounds; messages are left and profiles with the strong necessity to achieve the long-awaited update transcendence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to present a few of the results from my Ph.D. research. This is a comparative analysis on ritual preferences regarding own death expressed by middle-aged people (cohort of 1957 and 1972) and people in the fourth age (cohort of 1917 and 1932). The data is collected from biographical interviews conducted in 2009 and 2012 in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The results show a transformation in funerary practices and customs in the urban context in the last years. The analysis indicates that for middle-aged people there is a preeminence for cremation which defines the dematerialization of death. Both the rejection to cemeteries and funeral ceremonies reflecta changing ritualism. Appreciation of cemeteries and burials, however, characterizes the cohort of the fourth age and constructs a different relation between the alive and the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of metapsychology, even though it first appeared in a printed work in 1901, was Freud's subject for some years. This is about an inseparable notion of the Freudian thought and the way of understanding and writing the clinic. The topic tripod, dynamic and economic that metapsychology implies, insists on numerous Freud's works, even in its early stages; as evidence of this, it is possible to take his initial developments about hysteria. The central proposal of this writing lies precisely on that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including relationships between mysticism and phenomenology; between spirituality in general and philosophy and philosophy of mysticism.

The pandemic has not been experienced in the same way in different settings. The healthcare sector, accustomed to living with suffering, has itself suffered from unusual stress during this time. Long-held certainties have been confirmed such as the need for spiritual care for the sick, especially in the face of death or in particularly serious or traumatic situations. With respect to spirituality, it has been shown once again that we are called to discover negative experiences as places of grace, as Paschal events. On the other hand, the dialogue between spirituality and the experiences lived in the world of health care, intensified during the crisis of the pandemic, challenges us to explore all of its possibilities as a pathway of humanization, evangelization and inner transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors address the spiritualist conceptions of health and disease, focusing on the etiology of mental disorders. The spiritualist theory of human constitution and its relation to the condition is investigated. The role of concepts such as "etheric body" and "reincarnation" and its influence on the current life of the patient is analyzed. From the idea of "obsession" as pathology exchange product embodied the spirits, and therapeutic techniques used to achieve healing cure or investigate, and exemplified material based on interviews and fieldwork. The emphasis is on practical comprehensive nature of Kardecian movement incorporated the human dimension of spirituality, but with a different interpretation sustained by the "biomedicine". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the presentation of photographic images in crime sections of newspapers in Veracruz, Mexico. The author comments on the prevalence of violence in the city and describes the mythological and ritualistic elements represented in the press photography. The social aspects of violence in mass media are also analyzed.

From the confluence of different spiritual traditions and knowledge from the field of science and Western philosophy, we present an initial exploration of the emergence of a new psycho-physico-spiritual reality, we observed in different types of centers in the city of Valencia: Holistic Therapies Centers, Alternative Products Stores, Eastern Spirituality Centers, among others. From a methodology based on a combination of interviews and observations we have approached this process of re-enchantment of the world, understood as the global emergence of a new holistic spirituality, transversal and personal that is generating new coordinates which can understood the religious. Due to the magnitude of the phenomenon pointed out in this article we have focused on one aspect which we believe is of fundamental importance: the impact these movements involved in personal and collective terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thesis is structured into three parts: the first one provides a further knowledge of his intelectual career, in order to know the currents of thought that had an impact in his intelectual training, as long as his direct interlocutors between he and his thought and the questions he wants to answer with his philosophy. In the second part it is analysed his conception of the moral action and in the third part -which is the one included in the summary- we abound in the question that articulates the Sciacca work: the elaboration of a new methaphisics that gives reasons for that moral experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the way in which the dynamics of migrants' spatial movements and certain organizational processes have generated a series of transformations in the positions systems of some Mexican rural areas. There is also an ethnographic follow-up of the main variations that have taken place in the ritual structure of Petlalcingo, Puebla, as a result of the mass exodus and the religious practices of the absent offspring. The intention is to contribute to the development of the "status of the question" concerning the role that migration has played in the reconfiguration of religious positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious dance traditions are an expression of religious syncretism in which the relationship between the indigenous, mixed blood and Creole Catholicism groups are disputed. However, in the context of cultural globalization and the intensification of symbolic mobility, these dances are being reinterpreted by urban neo-Mexicanism movements that inspired innovative New-Age type beliefs, establishing links between the pre-Hispanic civilizations, popular Catholicism, popular urban culture and a global network known as New-Age religion. We analyze a case study of an Aztec dance group from Guadalajara, which is one of the oldest groups in the city and acts as an interface for the practitioners of neo-Mexicanism, spiritual seekers, Catholic mystics, intellectuals and for the popular dance traditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to review the role of humanistic psychologist facing issues with their authentic Latin American cultural expressions, in order to make an approach to the pre-established form of intervention within an amalgam of feelings and stories that make up this region. We begin by addressing the footsteps of humanistic psychology in this continent, and then take the mortuary ritual as an example and explain the scope, challenges, that remain to be addressed humanistic psychology and defend [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having as context the large and varied Bhagavad Gita's reception in the 19th century, this essay develops the particular reading that Francisco I. Madero did of this hindu text, from a spiritualist point of view, something according to the boom of the neoreligious trends like Spiritualism and Theosophy at the turn of the century. This situation happens at the same time that some artists and intellectuals take an interest in the Orient and specially the philosophies of India, like José Vasconcelos in Mexico, reader of the Maderos commentaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationalist intellectuals and spiritualists who wrote in The grain of sand from 1896 to 1899 focused on anti-clericalism and secularization of society by giving a spiritual treatment to the country's social problems. Also maintained a strong argument against the Catholic Church who asked him to stop being a house of merchants and to conform to the teachings of the gospel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a brief history of the Stations of the Cross, the series of artistic representations of Jesus carrying the cross toward his crucifixion that are used as devotions within the Catholic Church. The author describes the Stations, also known as the Via Crucis, as a spiritual pilgrimage, and discusses the medieval origins of the practice, the gratitude inspired by praying the Stations and the use of the Stations by parishioners to experience a closer, deeper union between themselves and Jesus Christ.

Based on original material, the author analyses the therapeutic practices carried out by the traditional healers from the Bolivian mountain tropical jungle, who usually name themselves as kallawaya. She stresses that the therapeutic procedures combine ritual healing with remedies, fixed mainly with vegetables, which revel a deep knowledge of the flora and its therapeutic properties. Firstly, the author focuses on the more frequent techniques used to treat the illnesses explained by natural causes, then, she explores the procedures used to treat the illnesses explained as the result of the power and actions of some human beings and the deities, showing that in this new context, more ritual therapies appear, adding that the deep meanings of such practices basically is to restore and maintain the equilib-rium between the individuals and the deities, who regier the native cosmos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work is described and analyzed the máatan k'ol, an agricultural and collective ritual realized in the municipality of Santa Elena, in the south of Yucatán. The presence of a woman as the ritual specialist, the objectives of the ritual and the sacrifice are emphasized as key elements in order to understand the changes and transformations in this type of rituals; without loosing the idea that in the Maya cosmos view, the forest, the milpa and the ranch are masculine spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork among the raramuri communities of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua (Mexico), this research examines two rituals that play a fundamental role in the raramuri world view: jicuri and bacanowa. I begin by reviewing some bibliographic references to these rituals, where sometimes they are portrayed as real, sometimes as legends. Secondly, I discuss the current ethnographic context in which the rituals of jicuri and bacanowa are performed, their function and social meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Cuba, amongst many Afro-Cuban religions, there is the Palo de Monte religion, also known as Regla Conga. This religious-and-therapeutic, Bantu-influenced practice is now a widespread practice in Bogotá, Colombia, where it recreates certain elements taken from other religious experiences such as the Regla de Ocha and spiritualism. The scenario presented in this essay is based upon ethnographic research and narrative analysis, and it intends to explain how when people experience extreme situations which undermine their ontological certainty, they start to redress the existential order by starting a specific ceremonial path which involves Palo de Monte.The focus is upon a Palo de Monte ceremony which took part in Bogotá, Colombia. The occasion was the visit of a Mexican-Colombian medical doctor who traveled from México City to seek a healing cure to a trabajo (sorcery) which was placed upon her by a former lover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an invitation to reflect upon the possibility of an encounter between God and the man through art, specifically in Latin American literature. The proposal is to discover how through different means, as the novel, God can enter into dialogue with man. The novel Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo is considered in this occasion to explore a theological-literary approximation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conception of health and illness in Cuban Santeria goes much further than traditional western ideas about them. The etiology of illness finds her cause in aspects that are much more profound, transcending the physical sphere, the visible world of the subject. Being or feeling ill is a product of a variety of situations which may confluence and are beyond organically explications. For the determination of illness the divinatory systems appear as therapeutic technologies which discern the different possible causes of the suffering tormenting the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores the relation between spiritualism's cosmology and the different forms of interacting with the sacred. Describing the different types of spiritual entities and dimensions, the main axis of the Escuela Científica Basilio's cosmology is unveiled to reveal a conception of the human condition as a crossroads between spiritual and material natures. This conceptions comes with a stock of resources and corporal techniques in order to evolve into a superior spiritual state and leave behind the material needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inter-cultural concept as a legal response to the fact of a multicultural society equally entitles rights and commitments accepting no difference in cultures claiming at the same time the right to be different. In this context, health professionals feel the need to approach cultural concepts different from their own that allow them to understand the essence of new interacting cultures. This sort of approaching, according to Leninger (i), must take into consideration the point of view of any individual and try to integrate in a system of professional knowledge as to be the core for health interventions coherent with cultural modes. The Islamic theological system, through the Koran, soaks the whole life of the Islamic people cultures. The terms: health and illness are frequent in the Islamic religious texts, among them the Koran. For those reasons and the above mentioned ones, the Islamic sacred texts in general, and the Koran in particular are very useful to health professionals in order to build up the emic vision stated by Leninger. Analysis and exegesis of the Koran according to the above mentioned terms are presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destructive sects have used religious rituals to justify human rights violations. Cultic leaders try to legitimize these aberrant conducts by using messianic discourses and patriarchal structures. This study analyzes how a religious leader can break the laws of his own organization and still maintain control over his followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores new possibilities for the study of political culture in Mexico. It moves away from electoral surveys and opinion polls into the analysis of everyday attitudes, rituals and symbols, principally highlighting the general historical conditions on which an "individualistic" rather than a "corporatist" culture may emerge. The paper suggests that the popular character of "the rogue" may provide important clues for the understanding of political values in Mexico. Additionally, it is argued that information concerning civic rituals and secondary socialization is also conducive to insights into political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Se presenta una introducción en que el autor discurre sobre los artículos en este número, incluyendo uno sobre el grupo indígena de Guatemala conocido como el mam, uno sobre el clientelismo y uno sobre los movimientos psico-espirituales en Valencia, España.