Resurgent Voices in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization, and Religious Change (review)

Resurgent Voices in Latin America offers an important examination of the role religion has played in the creation and advancement of indigenous political and social movements in Latin America. Over the past decade, a growing body of scholarly literature in political science, sociology, and anthropology has examined the emergence of powerful indigenous movements throughout Latin America. While existing literature on these movements has examined the importance of secular advocates and nongovernmental organizations for indigenous politics, relatively little attention has been given to the role of religious institutions in fostering indigenous political action. The contributors to this edited volume provide a broad view of the historical and contemporary activities of Christian institutions and theologies in that arena. Drawing on case studies of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru, these authors argue that religious institutions have strengthened indigenous identities and advanced indigenous rights in these countries.

Each of the chapters presents one of these case studies (except chapter 3, a comparison of two countries, Bolivia and Peru). As Cleary and Steigenga explain in the introduction, the advantage of this approach is that each chapter provides a rich, in-depth examination of the interaction between indigenous politics and religion in specific political and historical contexts. At the same time, these case studies contribute to the volume's overarching thesis that Catholic and Protestant institutions, beliefs, and religious practices in Latin America have affected and been affected by indigenous activism. They do this in three main ways (pp. 18–20). Religious syncretism and hybridity have played important roles in the development of indigenous theologies that support indigenous activism. Christian institutions have contributed important resources to indigenous activism, particularly education and organizational training. Indigenous peoples themselves, furthermore, have contributed to changes in Catholic and Protestant theologies and religious practices.

In chapter 2, "From Civil Society to Collective Action: The Politics of Religion in Ecuador," Allison Brysk convincingly argues that religious institutions' changing relationship to state power in that country has been as important as their theological content in determining "the difference between oppression and liberation" (p. 40). Brysk focuses on the relationship between Catholic and Protestant churches and the state over the past 50 years, particularly in the churches' capacity as social service providers for indigenous communities. She explores, for example, how Catholic education programs in both Ecuador's Amazonian lowlands and Andean highlands fostered indigenous identity and activism in the 1970s and 1980s.

While Brysk reveals the importance of religious programs for local indigenous politics in particular areas of Ecuador, her discussions of Ecuador's largest indigenous federations reveal few traces of Christian influence. Therefore one wonders how influential religious institutions have been in Ecuador's national indigenous movement, a question that Brysk, unfortunately, leaves largely unanswered.

Chapter 3 also focuses on the Andes with Cleary's comparative study of the emergence of indigenous theologies, "New Voice in Religion and Politics in Bolivia and Peru." Factors such as authoritarian governments and insurgency wars have stunted the growth of a coherent indigenous movement in Peru, while Bolivia has developed a high level of indigenous organization. Cleary argues, however, that despite the structural limitations for widescale mobilizations in Peru, in both countries the development of indigenous religious intellectuals and catechists created the foundation for indigenous activism. Yet Cleary does not present a well-integrated comparison of the two countries; he focuses most of his chapter on Bolivia's mature indigenous movement. This is lamentable, because, as Cleary points out, the comparison between Peru and Bolivia is an important and interesting case study of how structural factors limit the real possibilities for the religious expression of indigenous politics.

In chapter 4, René Harder Horst completes the book's examination of South America with her essay "Breaking Down Religious Barriers: Indigenous People and Christian Churches in Paraguay." In contrast to the previous two chapters, Horst emphasizes the role that indigenous peoples have played in changing...