Popular Religion and Appropriation: The Example of Corpus Christi in Eighteenth-Century Cuzco
Author(s)
Cahill, David
Abstract
Appropriation of religious culture is regarded as a double-edged phenomenon which may benefit either the colonialists and the colonized. As evidenced by the feast of the Corpus Christi, the subversive function of popular religion was extensively manipulated by the rulers and elites to accomplish their vested colonial interests. On the other hand, such a setting was ideal for overturning the colonial order. This dichotomy guided studies on popular religion and colonial religious life in 18th-century Peru and elsewhere in the Hispanic world.
