Religious Studies: A Global View

Argentina

There has never been a department or faculty of the history or study of religion

in Argentina. The proliferation of public and private universities in the latter

half of the twentieth century resulted in no departments, research programs,

or positions specific to such a ‘field’. The study of religious phenomena unites

different individuals and research groups from a variety of disciplinary

backgrounds. A key moment was the establishment of programs in sociology

and anthropology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) in the 1950s.

Important for scientific investigation in all areas was the creation, in the

1950s, of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

(CONICET). CONICET continues to promote investigation in three ways: it

funds a number of stable positions, the Carrera del Investigador Científico,

allowing Argentina’s top researchers to work from any university in the

country; it supports the creation of active research units, centers, and institutes;

and it funds research projects, generally within existing CONICET units in

the country’s universities.

Sociology

Sociological interest in religion took shape around Floreal Forni, CONICET

researcher and professor at UBA who led a seminar on ‘Sociology of Religions’.

Forni set up a team of investigators at CONICET’s Centro de Estudios e

Investigaciones Laborales (CEIL), with affiliates in other universities (Forni et

al.2003). This group has studied institutionalized religions, especially churches

as institutions and new religious movements, including institutional

Catholicism, various evangelical churches and Pentecostal groups in Argentina,

the charismatic renewal, and, to a lesser extent, Umbanda and other Afro-

Argentinian groups. It has also studied popular Catholicism, for example

fiestas dedicated to saints venerated by the migrant population of the interior

of the country and the emergence of non-canonical saints. A central figure

in the group is Fortunato Mallimaci, a professor at UBA and director of

CEIL/CONICET’s, Society, Culture and Religion area, which publishes the

journal Sociedade y Religión. He has also forged international research

networks, especially with France’s École des Hautes Études. Other important

researchers include Joaquín Algranti, Aldo Ameigeiras, Abelardo Soneira, and

Juan Esquivel.

More recent groups include that led by Alejandro Frigerio and Marita

Carozzi, both CONICET investigators at the Universidad Católica Argentina,

which has published studies of Pentecostal groups, Afro-Argentinian worship,

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