A New Bethel? Catholic Landscapes of the Northern Rio Grande

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Following the incorporation of New Mexico into the Spanish Empire, Christianity became an ever more powerful force across the region. Traditionally, we think of Christianity as a "world religion," by definition a trans-local phenomenon. Moreover, whenever Christianity takes on any "local" characteristics, it is assumed that this represents a syncretic dilution of its essential worldliness. Yet much is missed in conceptualizing Christianity as a religion of routes rather than roots—at least with respect to New Mexican Catholicism. In this paper, I examine how new forms of ritual landscape emerged in a place that was increasingly as Catholic as it was Native. Specifically, I focus on the complex relationships between Catholic petroglyphs and older shrine features found along the northern Rio Grande. It is argued that neither the anthropological concept of the "sacred landscape" nor the theological concept of a "Holy Land" fully captures the reality of how the Catholic-Native communities of New Mexico engaged with place.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32668