Syncretism

Syncretism, a process of assimilating different religious beliefs into a system different from its component parts. Strictly, this process does not include the retention of old beliefs or forms under a veneer of new ones, especially if the latter are imposed by force or represent merely the adoption of certain alien rituals. More widely, however, the term is used to signify the borrowing of beliefs and ritual of one religious system by another. In this latter sense, syncretism is as old as religion itself. Syncretic elements appear in the Bible, derived from Canaanite, Babylonian, and Greek sources. Almost from its origins, Christianity has incorporated features of other religions. The first part of the Roman Catholic Mass is based on the first-century Jewish synagogue service. Pagan feasts were freely borrowed, such as that of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), a Syrian solar god whose anniversary on 25 December, at the winter solstice, gives the date of modern Christmas, or the pagan seasonal celebrations that became the Ember Days. The bold experiment of the Jesuits in sixteenth-century China in adapting Catholicism to native customs and rites was eventually condemned by the papacy because it seemed to involve genuine syncretism.

Though Spanish Catholicism of the sixteenth century was often a folk religion mingled with superstition, the process of syncretism with pre-Christian elements had been so thorough that it is difficult to separate these syncretic elements from orthodox Catholicism. The syncretic process is seen more easily in the religion of the conversos (Jewish converts to Catholicism), who often retained Judaic practices that still can be found in New Mexico among present-day descendants of conversos who moved north from New Spain in the colonial period.

In pre-Conquest America, religious syncretism seems to have been common. The Mexica (Aztecs) commonly adopted the gods of conquered or tributary peoples, thus adding greatly to the complexity of their myths and deities. The southward movement of Mexican, or Toltec, influences from the central plateau had a strong impact on Maya religion of the post-Classical Period. Prominent among these was the acceptance of Quetzalcoatl under the name Kukulcan and the increased emphasis on human sacrifice. Because of the lack of clear evidence, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about pre-Conquest syncretism in Latin America.

The open-minded attitude of the Mexicas found difficulty with the exclusive demands of the Christian God preached by the early Spanish friars. There seems, however, to have been little active resistance, in part because of the wholesale disappearance of the native priesthood and temples during and after the Spanish Conquest. In the sixteenth century, cases were reported of relapses into idolatry and even of secret human sacrifice. More common were passive/aggressive techniques that involved external compliance without substantially altering the pre-Conquest religious viewpoint. In seventeenth-century Peru the church launched a major campaign against residual idolatry and syncretism.

Late twentieth-century research emphasized the subtle role played by the translation of religious concepts from one language to another. Europeans and Native Americans were separated by a vast cognitive and psychological gap. Basic Christian concepts, such as the afterlife as reward or punishment, hell, personal sin, and redemption, did not exist in the pre-Conquest New World. Translating these concepts and making them intelligible and acceptable to the Indians was one of the most daunting challenges faced by the early missionaries. The translation of western European religious terms into the native languages added nuances and were received by the Indians in terms of their own religious mentality and worldview. In Mexico this process has been called the "nahuatilization" of Christianity. The assertion that the early friars deliberately substituted Christian devotions or saints for pre-Conquest deities lacks any firm evidence. Most missionary friars were strongly opposed to any form of syncretism, which they regarded as neo- or crypto-idolatry.

The retention of native beliefs or their mingling with Christianity seems to have been strongest among Native Americans in those areas that were farthest from Spanish influence or those who held most tenaciously to traditional ways. The Mayas, in a special way, were resistant to change. In 1585, Pedro de Feria, the bishop of Chiapas, complained that Christianity was only a veneer among the Maya Indians of his diocese. The same thing was encountered among the Yaqui of northern Mexico, the Hopis of Arizona, and among the various Maya groups of Guatemala. In South America the old ways were reinforced by geographical isolation.

In the twentieth century some missionaries grew more tolerant and even accepting of syncretism, which they used as a missionary tool. The mingling of Christian and pre-Christian elements is regarded as inevitable and not subject to immediate change.

The term "syncretism" has become somewhat contested, and fallen into some disuse and is often replaced with terms such as "religious hybridity" and "religious creolization."

See alsoAfrican-Latin American Religions: Overview; Religion in Mexico, Catholic Church and Beyond.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles Gibson, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule (1964).

Charles E. Dibble, "The Nahuatilization of Christianity," in Sixteenth Century Mexico: The Work of Sahagún, edited by Munro S. Edmonson (1974), pp. 225-233.

Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, 3 vols. (1978–1985).

John M. Ingham, Mary, Michael, and Lucifer: Folk Catholicism in Central Mexico (1986).

Muriel Thayer Painter, With Good Heart: Yaqui Beliefs and Ceremonies in Pascua Village, edited by Edward H. Spicer and Wilma Kaemlein (1986).

Louise Burkhart, The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Greenfield, Sidney M., and A. F. Droogers, eds. Reinventing Religions: Syncretism and Transformation in Africa and the Americas. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.

Lockhart, James. The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.

Marzal, Manuel M. The Indian Face of God in Latin America. Trans. Penelope R. Hall. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.

Mills, Kenneth. Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640–1750. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Pereira, José Carlos. Sincretismo religioso & ritos sacrificiais: Influências das religiões afro no catolicismo popular Brasileiro. São Paulo: Zouk, 2004.

Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María. Pachacamac y el señor de los milagros: Una trayectoria milenaria. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1992.

                                Stafford Poole C.M.