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Religion, Authority, and Identity: Intergenerational Politics, Ethnic Resurgence, and Respect in Chimborazo, Ecuador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Barry J. Lyons
Barry J. Lyons*
Affiliation:
Wayne State University
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Abstract

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This essay examines the ambivalent interaction between liberation theology and notions of ‘respect’ among Quichua speakers in highland Ecuador. It focuses on three ways that notions of respect rooted in local history inform and transform current Catholic practice and ethnic politics. First, indigenous Catholic activists and mestizo priests appeal to respect for elders to argue for ethnic and religious loyalty. Second, the memory of hacienda-era discipline partly underpins current models of community authority and “indigenous law.” Finally, many villagers bring expectations shaped by hacienda prayer meetings to the Bible reflection that liberation theology promotes. This complex interaction contributes to local redefinitions of modernity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , 2001 , pp. 7 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

∗

I must express my deep thanks to the residents of the community called “Caparina” here and to the other villagers, Catholic activists, and pastoral agents as well as other friends and informants who facilitated my fieldwork in the province of Chimborazo. Thanks also to John Hamer, Pat Heck, David Holmberg, Gananath Obeyesekere, Richard O'Connor, and Mae Wallace for their comments and encouragement. The anonymous reviewers for LARR also provided constructive comments on an earlier version. My fieldwork in Ecuador from 1989 to 1992 was partly financed by a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council and an American Council of Learned Societies International Doctoral Research Fellowship. The University of the South supported subsequent trips in 1995 and 1996 through Faculty Research Grants.

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