Anthropos 
102.2007: 531-545 
A Practice Approach to Ritual 
Catholic Enactment of Community in Yucatán 
Christine A. Kray 
- Semantic and pragmatic theories have dominate! 
by r °Pological approaches to ritual, focusing on signs as reat 
^Petitioners and audience. A practice approach, in contrast 
nds to the ritual orchestration of bodies, how ritual instant! 
^relationships through obliging people to act in certain way 
in y ° ne an other. The continuous cycle of Catholic ritual activit; 
t) e Ucat an, Mexico, especially in the months of November ant 
§o 0 H mber , coordinates cooperation, sharing, and expressions o 
Sgg among family and community members. Ritual can bt 
b^., ^erefore, not as a separate realm that symbolizes society 
Hetwork through which society operates. [Mexico, Maya 
’ re hgion, practice] 
c hr . 
0fPg S ^ ne A. Kray, Ph. D. in Anthropology (1997, University 
itlg p, tl | ns ylvania). She held the McKennan Postdoctoral Teach- 
tw °wship at Dartmouth College and currently is Assistant 
•n b s ° r of Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology 
C ° a (lu eSter ’ blew York. - In the 1990s and in 2004 she has 
Me X j c Cie d two and a half years of ethnographic fieldwork in 
‘The v* an< ^ ^ e li ze - - She has written several articles including: 
^ u mmer Institute of Linguistics and the Politics of Bible 
? e 9Ue a '?, n * n Mexico. Convergence, Appropriation, and Con- 
fog (In: J. M. Watanabe and E. F. Fischer [eds.], Pluraliz- 
Tr Cs . n °graphy. Comparison and Representation in Maya Cul- 
b Vfi 1Storie s, an d Identities. Santa Fe 2004), and “Resistance 
How? Stalled Social Movements in Cancún” (City & 
006). - See also References Cited. 
Auction 
^v er 1 
w nters have argued that a major distinc 
tly etw een Catholic and Protestant Christianity is 
c| Ucl ^ 0 nfiguration of personhood. They have con- 
" q th at - in a relative, but not an absolute sense 
the D olicisr n promotes a relational conception of 
rson and Protestantism promotes individual 
ism. 1 This discussion can be traced back to Weber, 
who suggested that what characterized the Refor 
mation was an “unprecedented inner loneliness of 
the single individual” (Weber 1992: 104). Salvation 
was placed in the hands of the individual, and was 
dependent upon the inner development of faith, di 
vorced from any mediation by the sacraments or the 
church. The individual’s duty was to avoid com 
plications with the inherently sinful world except 
insofar as finding one’s personal “calling” and la 
boring dutifully in that activity for the glory of God 
(Weber 1992: 104-109). In contrast, Catholic doc 
trines are seen to convey ideas of corporatism, in 
which the fate and fortune of the individual person 
hinges upon relationships with other people. The 
salvation of the individual soul is secured through 
“works,” through charity expressed in social rela 
tionships, and through the mediation of the church, 
priests, and saints versus a direct relationship with 
God. Catholic corporatism is also symbolized in the 
doctrine of “the body of Christ” which represents 
both the community of the church and the physi 
cal body of Christ, which is ingested in the sanc 
tified host creating an actual physical communion 
between the deity and the communicants. 2 
Without implying that Catholic practice is simi 
lar everywhere, an analysis of Catholic practices in 
a Maya village in Yucatán, Mexico, confirms this 
1 Lukes 1973; 94-98; Shanahan 1992; Troeltsch 1931; Weber 
1992. 
2 Lukes 1973: 94-98; Shanahan 1992; Troeltsch 1931.