Date of Award
1997
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Weiss, Gerald
Abstract
Cases of syncretism from the New World and other areas, with a concentration on Latin America and the Caribbean, are reviewed in order to investigate the hypothesis that structural and symbolic homologies between interacting religions are preconditions for religious syncretism. In addition, definitions and models of, as well as frameworks for, syncretism are discussed in light of the ethnographic evidence. Syncretism is also discussed with respect to both revitalization movements and the recent rise of conversion to Protestantism in Latin America and the Caribbean. The discussion of syncretism and other kinds of religious change is related to various theoretical perspectives, particularly those concerning the relationship of cosmologies to the existential conditions of social life and the connection between religion and world view, attitudes, and norms.
Extent
162 p.
Recommended Citation
Selka, Stephen Lennox Jr, "Religious synthesis and change in the New World: Syncretism, revitalization and conversion" (1997). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 1223.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/1223
Identifier
FADT15470
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1997.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters