“What Kind of Catholic Are You?”
Reflexivity, Religion and Activism in the Peruvian Andes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.103Keywords:
feminist theory, methods, normativity, Peru, religion, reflexivityAbstract
This paper explores the intersections between feminist conceptions of reflexivity and activism in the context of social research on religion in the southern Andes of Peru. Emerging geographies of religion have been strongly influenced by feminist theory and methodology, yet few geographers working on themes of religion have openly analysed the role of reflexivity in research or activism. I draw upon the research that I conducted with the Catholic Iglesia Surandina and the Protestant Iglesia Evangélica Peruana in one of the high provinces of Cusco, and consider two different approaches toward reflexivity—a focus on my own religious identity and considerations of access, and a broader engagement with the politics of knowledge construction in the region. I conclude by suggesting the need for a more thoughtful consideration of the complex and contradictory politics and ethics of social religious research.
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References
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Conradson, D. 2008. “Expressions of Charity and Action towards Justice: Faith-Based Welfare in Urban New Zealand,” Urban Studies, 45.10, 2117–41. doi:10.1177/0042098008094876
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Fleet, M., and B. H. Smith. 1997. The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chile and Peru. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Gökariksel, B., and K. Mitchell. 2005. “Veiling, Secularism and the Neoliberal Subject: National Narratives and Supranational Desires in Turkey and France,” Global Networks, 5.2, 147–65. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00112.x
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Kong, L. 2001. “Mapping ‘New’ Geographies of Religion: Politics and Poetics in Modernity,” Progress in Human Geography, 25.2, 211–33. doi:10.1191/030913201678580485
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Lawson, V. 2007. “Geographies of Care and Responsibility.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97.1, 1–11. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00520.x
Lewis, D., A. Bebbington, S. Batterbury, A. Shah, E. Olson, M. S. Siddiqi and S. Duvall. 2003. “Practice, Power and Meaning: Frameworks for Studying Organizational Culture in Multi-Agency Rural Development Projects,” Journal of International Development, 15.5, 541–57. doi:10.1002/jid.1004
Martin, D. 1990. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Marzal, M. 1972. “Investigación social-religiosa y pastoral” (Socio-religious and pastoral research), Allpanchis Phuturinqa, IV, 185–201.
McDowell, L. 1992. “Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography,” Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 17, 399–416. doi:10.2307/622707
—2004. “Work, Workfare, Work/Life Balance and an Ethics of Care,” Progress in Human Geography, 28.2, 145–63. doi:10.1191/0309132504ph478oa
Mohanty, C. T. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” Feminist Review, 30, 61–88. doi:10.2307/1395054
Motte, D. 2002. Una revolución Silenciosa? El Impacto Social de las Nuevas Iglesias no Catolicas del Peru. Cusco, Peru: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas.”
Nagar, R. 2002. “Footloose Researchers, ‘Traveling’ Theories, and the Politics of Transnational Feminist Praxis,” Gender, Place and Culture, 9.2, 179–86. doi:10.1080/09663960220139699
Nagel, C. 2001. “Contemporary Scholarship and the Demystification—and Re-mystification— of ‘Muslim Women’,” Arab World Geographer, 4.1, 63–72.
Nast, H. J. 1994. “Opening Remarks on ‘Women in the Field’,” Professional Geographer, 46, 54– 66. doi:10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00054.x
Olson, E. 2006. “Development, Transnational Religion, and the Power of Ideas in the High Provinces of Cusco, Peru,” Environment and Planning A, 38, 885–902. doi:10.1068/a37217
Patai, D. 1994. “When Method Becomes Power,” in A. Gitlin ed. Power and Method: Political Activism and Educational Research. New York and London: Routledge, 61–73.
Romero, C. 1989. “Iglesia y proyecto social en el Perú,” Páginas, 96, 15–33.
Rose, G. 1997. “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics,” Progress in Human Geography, 21.3, 305–30. doi:10.1191/030913297673302122
Rouse, J. 2004. “Feminism and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge,” in S. Harding ed. The Feminist Theory Standpoint Reader. New York and London: Routledge,353–74.
Secor, A. 2001. “Toward a Feminist Counter-Geopolitics: Gender, Space and Islamist Politics in Istanbul,” Space and Polity, 5.3, 199–219. doi:10.1080/13562570120104409
—“The Veil and Urban Space in Istanbul: Women’s Dress, Mobility and Islamic Knowledge,” Gender, Place and Culture, 9.1, 5–22.
—2007. “Afterword,” in K. M. Morin and J. Kay Guelke eds. Women, Religion, and Space. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 148–58.
Sharp, J. 2005. “Geography and Gender: Feminist Methodologies in Collaboration and in the Field,” Progress in Human Geography, 29.3, 304–309. doi:10.1191/0309132505ph550pr
Sigmund, P. E. 1999. “Introduction,” in P. E. Sigmund ed. Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1–8.
Silvey, R. 2005. “Transnational Islam: Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” in G. Falah and C. Nagel eds. Geographies of Muslim Women. New York: Guilford, 127–46.
Sparke, M. 1996. “Displacing the Field in Fieldwork: Masculinity, Metaphor and Space,” in N. Duncan, ed. BodySpace. London and New York: Routledge, 212–33.
Spier, F. 1994. Religious Regimes in Peru: Religion and State Development in a Long-term Perspective and the Effects in the Andean Village of Zurite. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Staeheli, L. A., and V. A. Lawson. 1994. “A Discussion of ‘Women in the Field’: The Politics of Feminist Fieldwork,” The Professional Geographer, 46.1, 96–102. doi:10.1111/j.00330124.1994.00096.x
Strathern, M. 1987. “Out of Context: The Persuasive Fictions of Anthropology,” Current Anthropology, 28.3, 251–81. doi:10.1086/203527
Woodhead, L. 2007. “Gender Difference in Religious Practices and Significance,” in J. Beckford and N. J. Demerath III eds. Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. London: Sage, 550–70.
Bebbington, A. T. 2004. “NGOs and Uneven Development: Geographies of Development Intervention,” Progress in Human Geography, 28.6, 725–45. doi:10.1191/0309132504ph516oa
—2009. “Please Mr. Bebbington, Don’t Come Here and Tell Us What to Do,” Antipode, 41.1, 199–202. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2008.00662.x
Bowie, F. 2003. “An Anthropology of Religious Experience: Spirituality, Gender and Cultural Transmission in the Focolare Movement,” Ethnos, 68.1, 49–72. doi:10.1080/ 0014184032000060362
Brusco, E. 1995. The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Buang, A. 2004. “Discoursing on Fundamental Muslim Women: By Whom? For Whom?” Geography and Gender Reconsidered. Women and Geography Study Group of the RGS-IBG . Geography and Gender Reconsidered, London: WSGS and Institute of British Geographers, 142–55.
Burdick, J. 1998. Blessed Anastacia: Women, Race, and Popular Christianity in Brazil. London: Taylor and Francis.
Cloke, P. 2002. “Deliver Us from Evil? Prospects for Living Ethically and Acting Politically in Human Geography,” Progress in Human Geography, 26, 587–604. doi:10.1191/ 0309132502ph391oa
Conradson, D. 2008. “Expressions of Charity and Action towards Justice: Faith-Based Welfare in Urban New Zealand,” Urban Studies, 45.10, 2117–41. doi:10.1177/0042098008094876
Durand, R., SJ. 1969. “Allpanchis Phuturinqa: orakesajj achukaniwa…nuestra tierra germinará,” Allpanchis Phuturinqa, 1, I–II.
Dwyer, C. 1997. “Contested Identities : Challenging Dominant Representations of Young British Muslim Women,” in T. Skelton and G. Valentine eds. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge, 50–65.
—1999. “Veiled Meanings: British Muslim Women and the Negotiation of Differences,” Gender, Place and Culture, 6.1, 5–26.
—2003. “ ‘Where Are You From?’: Young British Muslim Women and the Making of ‘Home’,” in A. Blunt and C. McEwan eds. Postcolonial Geographies. London: Contiuum, 184–99.
Falah, G., and C. Nagel eds. 2005. Geographies of Muslim Women: Religion, Gender, and Space. New York: Guilford.
Fleet, M., and B. H. Smith. 1997. The Catholic Church and Democracy in Chile and Peru. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Gökariksel, B., and K. Mitchell. 2005. “Veiling, Secularism and the Neoliberal Subject: National Narratives and Supranational Desires in Turkey and France,” Global Networks, 5.2, 147–65. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00112.x
Haraway, D. 2004. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” in S. Harding ed. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader. New York and London: Routledge, 81–101.
Hopkins, P. E. 2006. “Youthful Muslim Masculinities: Gender and Generational Relations,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, NS 31, 337–52. doi:10.1111/j.14755661.2006.00206.x
—2007. “Young People, Masculinities, Religion and Race: New Social Geographies,” Progress in Human Geography, 31.2, 163–77. doi:10.1177/0309132507075362
—2009. “Women, Men, Positionalities and Emotion: Doing Feminist Geographies of Religion,” ACME, 8.1, 1–17.
Katz, C. 1992. “All the World is Staged: Intellectuals and the Projects of Ethnography,” Environment & Planning D; Society and Space 10, 495–510. doi:10.1068/d100495
Klaiber, J. L., SJ. 1992. The Catholic Church in Peru 1821–1985. A Social History. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
Kobayashi, A. 2003. “GPC Ten Years On: Is Self-Reflexivity Enough?” Gender, Place and Culture, 10.4, 345–49. doi:10.1080/0966369032000153313
Kong, L. 2001. “Mapping ‘New’ Geographies of Religion: Politics and Poetics in Modernity,” Progress in Human Geography, 25.2, 211–33. doi:10.1191/030913201678580485
Larrabee, M. J. 1993 “Gender and Moral Development: A Challenge for Feminist Theory,” in M. J. Larrabee ed. An Ethic of Care. Feminist and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, New York and London, 3–16.
Lawson, V. 2007. “Geographies of Care and Responsibility.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97.1, 1–11. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00520.x
Lewis, D., A. Bebbington, S. Batterbury, A. Shah, E. Olson, M. S. Siddiqi and S. Duvall. 2003. “Practice, Power and Meaning: Frameworks for Studying Organizational Culture in Multi-Agency Rural Development Projects,” Journal of International Development, 15.5, 541–57. doi:10.1002/jid.1004
Martin, D. 1990. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Marzal, M. 1972. “Investigación social-religiosa y pastoral” (Socio-religious and pastoral research), Allpanchis Phuturinqa, IV, 185–201.
McDowell, L. 1992. “Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography,” Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 17, 399–416. doi:10.2307/622707
—2004. “Work, Workfare, Work/Life Balance and an Ethics of Care,” Progress in Human Geography, 28.2, 145–63. doi:10.1191/0309132504ph478oa
Mohanty, C. T. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” Feminist Review, 30, 61–88. doi:10.2307/1395054
Motte, D. 2002. Una revolución Silenciosa? El Impacto Social de las Nuevas Iglesias no Catolicas del Peru. Cusco, Peru: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas.”
Nagar, R. 2002. “Footloose Researchers, ‘Traveling’ Theories, and the Politics of Transnational Feminist Praxis,” Gender, Place and Culture, 9.2, 179–86. doi:10.1080/09663960220139699
Nagel, C. 2001. “Contemporary Scholarship and the Demystification—and Re-mystification— of ‘Muslim Women’,” Arab World Geographer, 4.1, 63–72.
Nast, H. J. 1994. “Opening Remarks on ‘Women in the Field’,” Professional Geographer, 46, 54– 66. doi:10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00054.x
Olson, E. 2006. “Development, Transnational Religion, and the Power of Ideas in the High Provinces of Cusco, Peru,” Environment and Planning A, 38, 885–902. doi:10.1068/a37217
Patai, D. 1994. “When Method Becomes Power,” in A. Gitlin ed. Power and Method: Political Activism and Educational Research. New York and London: Routledge, 61–73.
Romero, C. 1989. “Iglesia y proyecto social en el Perú,” Páginas, 96, 15–33.
Rose, G. 1997. “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics,” Progress in Human Geography, 21.3, 305–30. doi:10.1191/030913297673302122
Rouse, J. 2004. “Feminism and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge,” in S. Harding ed. The Feminist Theory Standpoint Reader. New York and London: Routledge,353–74.
Secor, A. 2001. “Toward a Feminist Counter-Geopolitics: Gender, Space and Islamist Politics in Istanbul,” Space and Polity, 5.3, 199–219. doi:10.1080/13562570120104409
—“The Veil and Urban Space in Istanbul: Women’s Dress, Mobility and Islamic Knowledge,” Gender, Place and Culture, 9.1, 5–22.
—2007. “Afterword,” in K. M. Morin and J. Kay Guelke eds. Women, Religion, and Space. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 148–58.
Sharp, J. 2005. “Geography and Gender: Feminist Methodologies in Collaboration and in the Field,” Progress in Human Geography, 29.3, 304–309. doi:10.1191/0309132505ph550pr
Sigmund, P. E. 1999. “Introduction,” in P. E. Sigmund ed. Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1–8.
Silvey, R. 2005. “Transnational Islam: Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” in G. Falah and C. Nagel eds. Geographies of Muslim Women. New York: Guilford, 127–46.
Sparke, M. 1996. “Displacing the Field in Fieldwork: Masculinity, Metaphor and Space,” in N. Duncan, ed. BodySpace. London and New York: Routledge, 212–33.
Spier, F. 1994. Religious Regimes in Peru: Religion and State Development in a Long-term Perspective and the Effects in the Andean Village of Zurite. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Staeheli, L. A., and V. A. Lawson. 1994. “A Discussion of ‘Women in the Field’: The Politics of Feminist Fieldwork,” The Professional Geographer, 46.1, 96–102. doi:10.1111/j.00330124.1994.00096.x
Strathern, M. 1987. “Out of Context: The Persuasive Fictions of Anthropology,” Current Anthropology, 28.3, 251–81. doi:10.1086/203527
Woodhead, L. 2007. “Gender Difference in Religious Practices and Significance,” in J. Beckford and N. J. Demerath III eds. Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. London: Sage, 550–70.
Published
2010-01-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Olsen, E. (2010). “What Kind of Catholic Are You?”: Reflexivity, Religion and Activism in the Peruvian Andes. Fieldwork in Religion, 3(2), 103-121. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.103
