Sociologies and the discursive power of religions Edgar Zavala Pelayo
Primera edicin impresa, agosto de 2020
Primera edicin electrnica, octubre de 2020
D.R. E L C OLEGIO DE M XICO ,A.C.
Carretera Picacho-Ajusco 20
Ampliacin Fuentes del Pedregal
Alcalda Tlalpan
14110 Ciudad de Mxico, Mxico
www.colmex.mx
ISBN impreso 978-607-564-169-0
ISBN electrnico 978-607-564-214-7
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Sextil Online, S.A. de C.V./ Ink it 2020.
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Chapter 1
SOCIOLOGIES IN MEXICO: OVERLOOKED BACKGROUNDS, PERSISTENT TELEOLOGIES
T HIS OPENING CHAPTER introduces the reader to the distant and contemporary backgrounds of current sociologies in Mexico, the religious elements that may be found in those backgrounds and the changing and diverse, though relatively consistent, sociological rationalities that will be discussed in depth in the next chapters. As an introductory chapter, the material below is merely descriptive and is not meant to present thorough chronologies, though the chapters sections are indeed arranged in sequential historical periods. Rather than presenting a collection of narratives on institutional trajectories and strictly disciplinary developments as done remarkably in some of the works cited below the chapter introduces the reader to a series of key thinkers, scholars and sociologists, their profiles, some of their thoughts, as well as their social and political contexts. More specifically, the sections below present a descriptive overview of the proto-sociological thinking in colonial Mexico, the sociology of late 19th and early 20th century Mexico, as well as the present-day sociologies found in the country. It draws mostly on the works authored by specialized scholars based in Mexico, though it also presents the views of scholars based abroad, as well those whose analytical focus has been sociology in Latin America at large. The chapter starts with some counter-intuitive genealogical notes on the distant colonial background of sociology in Mexico. Using as an introductory prompt some works on the history of anthropology and their open acknowledgements of colonial and contemporary missionary ethnographies, the first section introduces the proto-sociological material produced by Catholic missionaries and clerics in colonial Mexico. The second section addresses both the secular profile and the religious thoughts of some representatives of the social thinking in 19th century Mexico. The third section discusses anti-positivism in Mexico through the case of Christian intellectual Antonio Caso. The fourth sub-section summarizes the different periods of sociologys institutionalization in the country, and some of the academic and extra-academic forces and trends that shaped sociology in the 20th century. The fifth section presents different readings of the sociologies that have emerged from the year 2000 onwards in Mexicos academic field. The conclusion highlights both the background religious elements overlooked in the mainstream literature and the different types of extra-disciplinary (Bruce 2000: 84) teleologies that, according to the specialized literature, were part of early sociology in the first half of the 20th century, and may still be found in contemporary sociologies.
Despite the apparent antagonism between anthropologists and missionaries (Stipe 1980), the anthropological literature has long acknowledged the ethnographic and ethnological knowledge produced by missionaries mostly Christian missionaries around the globe. Some of these works have adopted a radical and indeed controversial diachronic perspective, and have argued that the ethnographic contributions of Christianity may be traced back to the non-ethnocentric biblical records on foreign cultures and religions made by figures such as Paul the Apostle, and some of the authors of the Epistles and the Gospels more generally (Rosenstiel 1959: 108). Less controversially, other authors have argued more convincingly that Christianitys contributions to anthropology and ethnographic knowledge can be found in the reports and documents written by Christian missionaries in and about their mission fields in the last couple of centuries. Michaud (2007) for instance discusses the ethnographic contributions of French Catholic priests working in northern Vietnam in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Maxwell (2016) describes the social scientific research (2016: 371) carried out by Pentecostal missionaries in the early 20th century in the Belgian Congo and the effects of those scientific endeavors in the creation of ethnic regional identities. Cinammon (2012) discusses the works and anthropological knowledge of Protestant missionaries in the late 19th century in Gabon. Smith (2017) asserts that Christian missionaries in Africa were in fact the authors of some of the earliest reports on specific ethnic groups in the early 20th century. Zehner (2018) not only highlights the anthropological knowledge produced by British and North American Protestant missionaries in the 19th and early 20th centuries but also argues that the field contacts, ethnographic reports and cultural experience of the latter often provided the ethnographic material on which anthropologists built (2018: 2).
However, missionaries are not religious agents that emerged in the 19th or 20th centuries. Asserting that the earliest ethnographic contributions of Christianity can be found in biblical records is problematic in methodological and substantial terms. Still, it is possible to say that a significant amount of proto-ethnographic material can also be found in the letters, journals, records and other manuscripts authored by Christian missionaries in earlier colonial or colonizing enclaves. True (2012, 2015) for instance has analyzed the ethnographic writings of Jesuits in 17th century New France eastern territories of the United States and Canada today. Referring to the Jesuits as well, Pina-Cabral (2011) touches upon the historical-anthropological material about Ethiopia written by Jesuit missionaries Pero Pais and Jeronimo Lobo in the 17th century, as well as the proto-ethnographic works on Japan by missionary Luis Frois in the 16th century (2011: 380-1).
Regarding Catholic missionaries and proto-ethnographies, colonial Mexico is not an exception. Klor (1991) points out the tactical value the colonial Spanish regime placed upon the ethnographic knowledge of the indigenous societies of the Americas (1991: 10). In Klors view, Catholic missionary-ethnographers and Catholic institutions such as the inquisition were formally instructed to collect the information needed to found a productive and peaceful colony (1991: 11). What is worth noting here is not whether Catholic missionaries produced their materials only to fulfill the Spanish regimes demand, but the fact that one of the key agents who elicited, translated, interpreted, and ordered (1991: 11) socio-geographic and ethnographic data about the indigenous societies of colonial Mexico was doubtless the Catholic missionary and the Catholic clergy. Could it have been possible that such data produced and diffused by Catholic agents contained also the earliest
