and the New Age movement in Buenos Aires (e.g. Frigerio and Carozzi 1993;
Frigerio and Oro 1998; Carozzi 2001). The group has strong relations with
Brazilian researchers through the Asociación de Cientistas Sociales de la Religión
en el Mercosur (ACSRM) and publishes the journal Ciencias Sociales y Religión.AnthropologyThe emergence of anthropological studies of religion was rooted in field work
with indigenous groups and in rural Creole and half-caste societies. From the
1920s into the 1960s, the myths of Argentina’s indigenous cultures, especially
in the Gran Chaco, were compiled and published, generally without analysis
and with some information on religious beliefs (Metraux 1939; Palavecino
1935, 1940). Folklore studies of rural, Creole, and half-caste populations
focused on the beliefs, ‘superstitions’, and rituals of popular Catholicism
(Cortazar 1948; Vivante 1953; Ambrosetti 1971).
A significant change in the study of the indigenous cultures of Latin America
materialized towards the end of the 1960s in the Instituto de Antropología de
la Universidad de Buenos Aires, with a group investigating the broader cultural
contexts of myth and ritual. Led by Marcelo Bórmida (see 1969–1970), the
group created the Centro Argentino de Etnologia Americana (CAEA), a unit
of CONICET, which publishes the journals Scripta Ethnologica and
Mitologicas. Thematic interests include myth, native cosmologies, ritual, and
notions of power (in the phenomenological sense). The predominant metho-
dological stance draws on Husserl’s phenomenology and hermeneutical
theories. CAEA has also studied the evangelization of indigenous societies,
related adaptative strategies and religious change, and messianic movements.
Prominent contributions include the work of Edgardo Cordeu (e.g. 1974,
2004), Alejandra Siffredi (1984, 2002), José Braunstein (1974, 1990), Pablo
Wright (1984, 1994) and Anatilde Idoyaga Molina (1985, 1999, 2000). New
lines of investigation examine relations between the medical and religious fields,
including New Age, yoga, reiki, shiatsu, and ritual therapies among evangeli-
cals, Pentecostals, Catholic and Afro-Argentinian groups (e.g. Saizar 2005;
Korman 2005; Bordes 2006; Barrón 2004; Idoyaga Molina 2004; Idoyaga
Molina and Luxardo 2004).
UBA’s Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas is also home to the Centro de
Antropología Especiales, founded by Edgardo Cordeu and Alejandra Siffredi,
which studies, among other issues, the indigenous societies of the Gran Chaco
(Briones 2003; Ludueña 1998; Spadafora 1995). Pablo Wright has played an
important role in shaping the careers of younger investigators, such as Cesar
Ceriani Cernadas, Catón Eduardo Carini, and Silvia Citro. Currently, research
into contemporary urban issues, for example New Age and Internet sects, has
taken precedence over qualitative studies and hermeneutic approaches.272
ENGLER, MOLINA, DE LA TORRE, RIVERA AND MARCOS