Religiosity at the roadside: memorials, animitas, and shrines on a Chilean highway

Roadside memorials devoted to vehicle-related deaths are increasingly common across the globe. Scholars have generally emphasised their commemorative status—as sites where a private memory is publicly displayed—underestimating, however, their religious dimension. This article is based on research wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Steinert, Isidora Urrutia (Author) ; Carvallo, Eduardo Valenzuela (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Carfax Publ. [2019]
In: Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 34, Issue: 3, Pages: 447-468
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Chile / Superhighway / Votive offering / Monument / Sanctuary
IxTheo Classification:AG Religious life; material religion
CB Christian life; spirituality
CD Christianity and Culture
KBR Latin America
Further subjects:B Folk saints
B Roadside memorials
B violent death
B Ex-votos
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Roadside memorials devoted to vehicle-related deaths are increasingly common across the globe. Scholars have generally emphasised their commemorative status—as sites where a private memory is publicly displayed—underestimating, however, their religious dimension. This article is based on research which involved the content analysis of photographs taken during multiple visits to the 94 roadside memorials existing in 2015 on Route 78, a major Chilean highway connecting Santiago (Chile's capital city) and San Antonio (one of the country's main sea ports). We argue that Chilean roadside memorials are not solely commemorative sites but primarily animitas that have a core (popular) religious component: they are privileged locations where salvific grace is dispensed, acting as mediators between the living and the divinity and connecting the sacred and profane worlds. Furthermore, we suggest that the tragic nature of the deaths they commemorate confers on them a miraculous efficacy which may transform the sites into shrines and the victims into folk saints.
ISSN:1469-9419
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2019.1658434