Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics and Belief of Religious Conversion

新学校大学博士生迭戈·卡格纳斯将在安·斯特维尔博士的指导下，对拉丁美洲土著政治化现象进行人类学研究。他将通过透镜来看待这些变化，这是远离殖民列强引入的世界宗教，回到复兴的地方宗教的运动。拉丁美洲的这类运动反映了当代世界许多地方对世俗主义的广泛拒绝，这使它们具有社会科学和社会政策的意义。研究将在哥伦比亚的蒂耶拉登特罗进行，1994年的山体滑坡促使土著纳萨人回归传统的宗教习俗。研究人员将调查人格的重新定义，这是一种激进的NASA复兴主义，称为Cosmovision。美国宇航局的积极分子一直在努力将美国宇航局的灵性重塑为一个自主的信仰体系，这排除了本土和基督教哲学的融合。他们的目标是创造一个“真正的美国宇航局”，他将适应更广阔的精神世界和一套本土信仰。研究人员假设，当地的演员采取转换到天主教或宇宙观作为个人重新识别的策略，在一个日益世俗的社会，积极形成的一部分，民族自我意识。研究方法将包括长期的参与观察，结构化和半结构化的访谈，和档案文件的分析，这项研究的结果将不仅有助于代表性不足的地理区域的研究，但也将解决一个更广泛的主题：天主教福传对土著信仰和政治活动的历史和持续影响。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于从理论上理解远离世俗主义的全球趋势。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

New School University doctoral student Diego Caguenas, supervised by Dr. Ann Stoler, will undertake anthropological research on the phenomenon of indigenous politicization in Latin America. The lens through which he will view these changes is the movement away from world religions introduced by colonial powers and back to revived local religions. Such movements in Latin America echo a broader rejection of secularism in many parts of the contemporary world, which makes them of social scientific as well as social policy interest.The research will be carried out in Tierradentro, Colombia, where a 1994 landslide prompted the indigenous Nasa people to return to traditional religious practices. The researcher will investigate redefinitions of personhood that characterize this radical Nasa revivalism called Cosmovision. Nasa activists have been working to recast Nasa spirituality as an autonomous belief system, which precludes the melding of native and Christian philosophies. Their aim is to produce a "true Nasa" who would be attuned to a broader spiritual universe and set of native beliefs. The researcher hypothesizes that local actors take up conversion to Catholicism or to Cosmovision as strategies of personal re-identification in an increasingly secular society as part of the active formation of an ethnic self-awareness. Research methods will include long-term participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviewing, and analysis of archival documents.The findings of this research will contribute not only to the study of an underrepresented geographical area, but will also address a broader topic: the historic and ongoing impact of Catholic evangelization on indigenous beliefs and political activism. The research is important because it will contribute to theoretical understanding of a worldwide trend away from secularism. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.