Mercedes Nachón Ramírez holds a degree in Sociology (Universidad de Buenos Aires), a doctoral fellowship from conicet based in the Society, Culture and Religion program of the Center for Labor Studies and Research (ceil- conicet). She is currently a first assistant professor of General Sociology at the Sociology Department of the University of Buenos Aires. Her doctoral research is oriented to the understanding of the processes of professionalization in neo-shamanism in the city of Buenos Aires, focusing on the articulations that neo-shamanism establishes with different social worlds, spaces and institutions related to health, spirituality and the supply of cultural goods.

Realidades socioculturales

The Celebration of Beliefs. Cultural Policies and Religious Diversity in a Public Cultural Center in the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

  • María Eugenia Funes
  • Mercedes Máspero
  • Mercedes Nachón Ramírez

Keywords: Argentina, religious diversity, public space, New Age spirituality, cultural policies.

The purpose behind this article is to analyze the way in which the diversity of beliefs was defined and rebuilt in a cycle organized by a public cultural center in the city of Buenos Aires. For this, we will study the uses of the category of belief and the spiritual references created by participating state agents, artists and religious and spiritual specialists. We ask ourselves the definitions of all that is religious, spiritual and the diversity of beliefs that move outside institutions traditionally linked to religion. Likewise, we set out to show, using a specific case, the way in which the concern over diversity in the design of Latin American cultural public policies can coexist with the selection of specific cultural expressions which, in this case, represent only a part of the existing religious diversity. The data were built from a qualitative strategy that included participatory observations, in-depth interviews and the analysis of documents.