Perez Y Menas Understanding Of The Term `syncretism`

NameProfessorCourseDatePerez Y Mena s Understanding of SyncretismThe traditional Greek inspired reading of syncretism refers to the conscious act of reconciling differences toward a common purpose . The term however as used by anthropologists and separate scholars in the 1930s lost this chivalrous meaning to instead refer to the seemingly unplanned blending or sufferance of disparate cultures , traditions and theology of religionFor the anthropologist-author Andres Isidoro Perez y Mena , the use of syncretism theories provided early anthropologists prosperous expressions to study African-Caribbean religions from a Eurocentric point of get a line Unfortunately this benefit also resulted in the first appearance of the wrong(p) image of Africans to the modern worldPerez y Mena points out that syncretism paved the way of life for many another(prenominal) errors in understanding Afro-Latin religions like the Cuban Santeria (Saint care , Haitian Vodun (Voodoo , and Puerto Rican Spiritualism . The author prefers to use a multiculturalists prove up to his studies in an effort to expose the faults of the Eurocentric touch sensation that fib is dictated by the institutions wielding hegemony and oppressionHe also cautions people from accept every(prenominal) the content of early scholarly studies which attributes to syncretism the similar characteristics found among Afro-Latin religions to westbound religion like the Catholic faith .

It has been realized in recent times that research into ! the Afro-Latin religions as implementd in the western world atomic number 18 not but perfect since many practitioners lied or hid their practices behind the current practice of CatholicismAn example of this error would be the 1937 study of American anthropologist Melville Herskovits which exposit the term orisas as gods but really referred to a pantheon of Yorba root word deities (Perez Y Mena 16The anthropologist also attacks the Eurocentric opinion that only Afro-Latin religions are subject to the syncretic characteristic of retaining items from a prior geographical area while European or American religions on the other hand are exonerate from such a phenomenonHe postulates that Africans who came into contact with Europeans changed when their general culture underwent transculturation and not syncretism and that what has been ascribed to syncretism could also be simply a result of modern diffusion , union or culture contact (Perez Y Mena 11Perez Y Mena concludes that many social scientists of the 20th century erroneously applied syncretism to their studies of Afro-Latin religions delinquent to reasons of expediency . They became a case of researchers arriving with their unilateral Eurocentric truths and because simply using syncretism to match their findings with their viewsWorks CitedPerez y Mena , Andres I . Cuban Santeria , Haitian Vodun , Puerto-Rican Spiritualism - a Multiculturalist Inquiry into Syncretism daybook for theScientific canvass of Religion Mar 98 V .37 , Is .1 Pp .15-27Surname knave 2...If you desire to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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