Perez Y Menas Understanding Of The Term `syncretism`

NameProfessorCourseDatePerez Y Mena s Understanding of SyncretismThe traditional Greek inspired rendering of syncretism refers to the conscious act of reconciling differences toward a common inclination . The term however as used by anthropologists and other scholars in the 1930s lost this chivalrous meaning to preferably refer to the seemingly unplanned blending or credence of disparate cultures , traditions and theology of religionFor the anthropologist-author Andres Isidoro Perez y Mena , the use of syncretism theories provided early anthropologists favorable expressions to study African-Caribbean religions from a Eurocentric point of get a line Unfortunately this benefit also resulted in the presentation of the wrong(p) image of Africans to the modern worldPerez y Mena points out that syncretism paved the way for many another(prenominal) errors in understanding Afro-Latin religions like the Cuban Santeria (Saint reverence , Haitian Vodun (Voodoo , and Puerto Rican Spiritualism . The author prefers to use a multiculturalists climb up to his studies in an effort to expose the faults of the Eurocentric belief that fib is dictated by the institutions wielding hegemony and oppressionHe also cautions people from believing every(prenominal) the content of early scholarly studies which attributes to syncretism the similar characteristics found among Afro-Latin religions to Hesperian 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 entirely perfect since many practitioners lied or hid their practices behind the accepted 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 belief 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 exempt 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 contemporary 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 biased 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 Journal for theScientific canvass of Religion Mar 98 V .37 , Is .1 Pp .15-27Surname PAGE 2...If you desire to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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