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Resumo

Mexican anthropologists and ethnologists have maintained that the rapid spread of protestant sects in the country can be explai ned as the avant-garde of an alleged ideological penetration of North American imperialism. In this article, the author shows that this is not at all the case, by basing his argument on fieldwork car ried out in various places in the south of the country where, accor ding to the last population census, the percentage of the overall population which is protestant is highest. Mexican protestantisms are predominantly rural, and their spread can be explained by their ability to ensure continuity with the magical-religious symbollic uni verse, by incorporating and reviving healing practices in particu lar. Moreover, the sectors which adopt the new credo do so with the aim of mounting political resistance to the traditional caciques which have been able to maintain control over catholic symbollic practices (system of ritual duties and feast-days), in order to more effectively secure a rapid accumulation of capital for themselves, as areas with a traditional economy are gradually integrated into the market economy. Protestantisms therefore represent a politi cal refusal to submit to the caciques, and make it possible to struc ture an autonomous organization and to break the dominant social relations.

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