Neighborhood immigrant popular religion: A new interpretation.
Item
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Title
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Neighborhood immigrant popular religion: A new interpretation.
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Identifier
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AAI8914799
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identifier
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8914799
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Creator
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Trabold, Robert Albert.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Paul Ritterband
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Religion, General | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | Anthropology, Cultural
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Abstract
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The literature dealing with the Catholic immigration to the United States has generally studied the large European migration to these shores from 1820-1939. The dominant sociological theory to analyze the function of religion in this movement has been that of Durkheim and Malinowski stressing the community building function of religion.;The dissertation attempts to study the recent Caribbean immigrants who have come to this country since 1945 and to analyze the function of religion in this migration more in terms of social change and conflict. The study takes place in the Haitian, West Indian and Hispanic community in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY. It analyzes a large street manifestion, the Corpus Christi procession, which is a popular event in the neighborhood.;Taking the procession as a microcosm, this dissertation notes the factors and implications in this flamboyant manifestation of festive Caribbean popular religion and culture. It studies how these are in conflict with the dominant Western rationalistic culture of industrial and technical North American Society. Such theorists as A. Gramsci, M. Weber and V. Turner are used to explicate this tension.;The dissertation also sees this festive manifestation of Caribbean popular religion in conflict with three modernizing tendencies of the Second Vatican Council. The Council which was to make the Catholic Church more pastorally effective is found to be insensitive to the preferences of the working class and certain Third World people in terms of worship and styles of Christian expression.;In line with the current debate in Latin America on the social protest dimension to popular religion, this study analyzes this theme in the procession. It focuses particularly on its implications to liberate the immigrants from their marginal social and economic condition in this country and its aid to liberation in the immigrants' Caribbean and Latin American homelands. The dissertation finds the immigrant popular religion as having a potential for and seeds of political and social liberation. With the proper process of critical awareness, it can be activated to help build strong movements for social change among marginal people.;For the above reasons, the dissertation opens a new horizon to understand Caribbean immigrant popular religion in terms of social change and conflict within the Catholic Church and wider society.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
