Forever Familias: Race, Gender, and Indigeneity in Peruvian Mormonism

Peruvian members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints face the dilemma of embracing their faith while finding space to nourish their Peruvianness, according to Jason Palmer's research. He explores how Peruvian Saints resolved the first clash by creating a new pioneer indigeneity and stretching the Anglo Church's model of the nuclear family to encompass familia.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 342 pages
Publication date: 02 September 2024
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Peruvian members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints face a unique challenge as they navigate their faith while preserving their Peruvian identity. Jason Palmer's extensive fieldwork provides valuable insights into this complex relationship. He reveals that for Peruvian Saints, the foundational concepts of kinship and religion became intertwined, challenging the traditional dichotomy between them. At the same time, they recognized that LDS rituals and reenactments often perpetuated coloniality, conflicting with the Peruvians' indigenous roots and family-centered culture. In the first part of his study, Palmer explores how Peruvian Saints addressed this initial conflict by developing a new concept of pioneer indigeneity that rejected victimhood and embraced subtle interactions with power. In the second part, he highlights the efforts of Peruvian Saints in expanding the Anglo Church's model of the nuclear family to encompass the broader Peruvian concept of familia. This study offers a nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by Peruvian Saints as they strive to maintain their faith while preserving their cultural heritage.

Weight: 542g
Dimension: 233 x 156 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780252087950