People in class and multiethnic societies often use langauge and religion as a means to assert identity. Class relations in turn affect kinship relationships and ideas about gender. During this project the researcher will test the hypothesis that working classes in developing countries use religion as a means to counter the claims of, and in opposition to, elites. He will specifically study the linguistic and social dimensions of Circum-Caribbean popular religion in Cartagena, Columbia which Columbian elites have defined as insufficiently Christian and as a cause of purportedly deviant family structures. He will focus on how both men and women have been affected by this categorization. Religion is the most important public domain in Latin America. This project will increase our understanding of how class and religion interact and affect other areas of life in developing countries.
