Exporting the Catholic Reformation: Local Religion in Early-Colonial Mexico by Amos Megged (review)

488book reviews perceived tensions between the American and Canadian membership. . . ." McKenna does not explore the nature of these tensions. Did the Americans feel that their views were being underrepresented in a Canadian-based congregation ? Did the Canadians look at the leadership structure and wonder if too many Americans were in pivotal positions? Mother Reiser and Sister O'Toole were from Massachusetts as was Sister Catherine Wallace, the first director of studies at the Sister Formation Center in Halifax. By 1972, with the election of Sister Katherine O'Toole, only thirty-seven when she assumed office, the formation houses were being converted into retirement centers—a consequence of the full impact of declining vocations and withdrawals of some of the community's best-educated women. McKenna concludes by reminding us that modification of the ". . . structures, customs and habits led to a period of breakdown and conflict . . ." and perhaps most poignantly, "aloneness." She writes that while the dignity of the individual person was the main guideline in the movement toward the appropriate renewal of religious life, insufficient thought was given to the consequences of dismantling the traditional system. She notes too that "... until Vatican II, women religious were perhaps the most dependable but at the same time the most expendable resources in the Church. . . ." One might conclude from reading Charity Alive, that in view of the limited planning given to the specifics of renewal within the larger Church, the expendability of women religious continued after Vatican Council II. McKenna seems to suggest that during the renewal of religious life more could, or should, have been salvaged from a world we may have lost. Elizabeth W McGahan University ofNew Brunswick—SaintJohn Campus Latin American Exporting the Catholic Reformation: Local Religion in Early-Colonial Mexico . By Amos Megged. [Cultures, Beliefs, and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples,Volume 2.] (Leiden and NewYork: E.J. Brill. 1996. Pp. x, 191. $71.50.) Amos Megged's book examines local religion among the Tzeltal Maya of Chiapas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Though its title emphasizes the Church's role in Mexico, this book ascribes as much agency to indigenous peoples as it does to priests. The first chapter surveys the cultural divide between natives and Spaniards by the end of the period under study. According to the author,whereas mendicant orders in the early period had engaged in meaningful dialogues with native nobles, utilizing Maya world views to convey Chris- BOOK REVIEWS489 tian concepts, ecclesiastics were more inclined to preach order and conformity by the seventeenth century. This fundamental change can be attributed to the post-Tridentine emphasis on subordinating local beliefs to universal symbols and regulations. Bishop Nuñez de laVega's writings on local Maya myths and his campaigns to eradicate "superstitions" in the 1680-90's represent this ideology, for example. In my view, the author has placed too much emphasis on how church reforms affected priests' practices in Mexico, and the extent to which their strategies and activities impacted native religious beliefs in Chiapas. Nonetheless, the following four core chapters contain a wealth of fascinating material on Tzeltal religion in the colonial period. A chapter titled "Administering" uses bishops' visitations of parishes to illustrate the limited and divided nature of ecclesiastical organization in this peripheral region of New Spain. Chapter three, "Translating," considers how Christian doctrine was conveyed in native communities, focusing on the parish confraternity or cofradía. The cofradía is seen here as an institution that introduced social conflict between "acculturated" native nobles (ladinos) and commoners from the 1570's onward. This interpretation disputes the integrative and leveling aspects of native cofradías, and de-emphasizes existing social distinctions and contested power relations within Mesoamerican communities. Chapter four, "Interpreting," considers the process of religious negotiation by interpreting a number of metaphors and myths contained in Tzeltal-language sermons and other church-sponsored publications of the early colonial period, suggesting how Christian rituals and terminologies relied in part on Maya cultural concepts. The fifth and final chapter, titled "Departing," discusses indigenous attempts to gain religious autonomy and acts of community resistance. An ecclesiastical inquiry into a cofradía cult, carried out in the 1 580's, reveals how native...