Pentecostalism and Women in Brazil

Can There Be Conversion Without Cultural Change?

“…Even within the literature anthropology has thus far produced on Christianity, still relatively small compared to many other disciplines, the fault-lines of struggle I have identified among the Urapmin, between an individualist engagement with Christianity and a traditional valuation of relationships, is not one scholars have always found replicated elsewhere (see Bialecki and Daswani 2015 and Author 2015 for debates over the prevalence of this pattern). In other places, anthropologists and those with whom they engage have found Christians more eager to work on conflicts around models of political action (Marshall 2009, O'Neill 2010, economic life (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991), gender relations (Brusco 1995, Eriksen 2008, Mariz and Machado 1997, Author 2012, the value of the material world (Engelke 2007, Webster 2013, and the propriety of traditional cultural expressions (Handman 2015). This list is already long and it could be longer, but in the present context its length is not the point.…”

The Anthropology of Christianity

“…In this part of the world, women who convert to Protestantism are often empowered to offer a critique of male behaviors that do not conform to Christian norms (Brusco 1993). They do so on the basis of their new moral orientation under a faith that treats them as individuals primarily responsible to God, and only secondarily to the authority of men, and their case is strengthened by the fact that Christian norms are generally oppose male prestige activities -drinking, gambling, promiscuity -that work against the interests of women and of family life (Brusco 1993, Mariz and Machado 1997, Smilde 1997 also see Austin-Broos 1997). Paradoxically, while Pentecostalism enables women converts to step away from particular social obligations toward male authority, the same moral critique that affords them a degree of individual autonomy works to re-embed male converts in their network of family and social relations.…”

Gender Attitudes in Religious Schools: A Comparative Study of Religious and Secular Private Schools in Guatemala

“…Some scholars, such as Gill (1990), conclude that the Pentecostal religion that is growing rapidly in the region is detrimental to women because many Pentecostals view the subordination of women as part of the natural order that is sanctioned by God. On the other hand, a number of researchers, including Marquardt (2005); Mariz and Machado (1997);and Brusco (1993), have found that evangelicalism is often supportive of women's autonomy. This is because its emphasis on family life serves as an antidote to machismo, providing women with practical improvements in the form of respect and support from their husbands.…”