Brazil

In my research on Brazil, which included one year of fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro and intensive study of the Portuguese language, I use both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the salience of race, skin color, class, and religion in a country with high economic inequality.

The Relationship between Education and Skin Color in Latin America

This article addresses the question of whether educational attainment, a key indicator of socioeconomic status, is related to skin color in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on data from the 2010 AmericasBarometer, our analysis shows that persons with lighter skin color tend to have higher levels of schooling than those with dark skin color throughout the region, with few exceptions. Moreover, these differences are statistically significant in most cases and, as we show in a test of several multiracial countries, the negative relation between skin color and educational attainment occurs independently of class origin and other variables known to affect socioeconomic status. Thus, we find that skin color, a central measure of race, is an important source of social stratification throughout the Americas today.

Key words: race, skin color, socioeconomic status, Latin America

  • Telles, Edward and Liza G. Steele. 2012. “Pigmentocracy in the Americas: How is Educational Attainment Related to Skin Color?” AmericasBarometer Insights. 73:1-8. Published article [In Spanish as “Pigmentocracia en las Américas: ¿cómo se relaciona el logro educativo con el color de piel?” Perspectivas desde el Barómetro de las Américas. PDF (open access - Español)]
  • Telles, Edward and Liza G. Steele. 2012. “The Effects of Skin Color in the Americas.” Americas Quarterly. Article

‘A Gift from God’: Adolescent Motherhood and Religion in Brazilian Favelas

This study seeks to understand how young, unmarried mothers and mothers-to-be in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have experienced religious morality as applied to themselves and other adolescents in their communities, as well as how religious leaders grapple with the moral issue of unmarried adolescent maternity in their midst. Drawing on more than 50 interviews conducted in Rio with young mothers, Catholic and evangelical religious leaders who work with the poor, and staff members of non-governmental organizations, this paper seeks to understand the acceptance—or even approval—that unmarried pregnant teens and adolescent mothers usually encounter, which casts doubt on whether the issue is actually posing a moral dilemma for these religious institutions. The realities of everyday life in Rio’s favelas, most prominently the ever-present specter of violence, high rates of teen motherhood, strong popular opposition to abortion, the high value accorded to motherhood, and the intense competition of the religious marketplace appear to influence the ways in which favela residents and religious leaders understand and interpret morality. More generally, this study offers an example of how religious groups working in impoverished communities throughout the world might adapt traditional moral codes to suit their circumstances.

Key words: adolescents/youth; Brazil; Pentecostalism; sexual behavior; morality; ethnography.

  • Steele, Liza G. 2011. “‘A Gift from God’: Adolescent Motherhood and Religion in Brazilian Favelas.” Sociology of Religion. 72(1): 4-27. (Lead article) Published article | PDF | Online supplement
    • Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Children and Youth Section, 2011
    • Graduate Student Paper Award Honorable Mention, American Sociological Association Community and Urban Sociology Section, 2011

Multi-Religiosity: Expanding research on ties to multiple faiths in the 21st century

In the 21st century, it is not uncommon to encounter people with ties to more than one religion. Some examples of such multiple or dual religious ties (referred to as “multi-religiosity” for the purposes of this paper) include the practice of Buddhism among Christians and Jews, regular church attendance among those who say they are not religious, and the children of mixed religious couples who might be raised with some level of identification with the spiritual traditions of both parents. Yet, literature and data on the topic of multi-religiosity is scarce. Through an analysis of qualitative data gathered by the author in Brazil in 2007–2008 and data from a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life in the United States in 2009, this paper aims to draw attention to the prevalence of dual or multiple religious ties in 21st-century Western countries, and to encourage a reconsideration of traditional concepts and categories in scholarly approaches to studying religion.

Key words: multi-religiosity, religious pluralism, dual religious belonging, religious superdiversity, sociology of religion

  • Steele, Liza G. 2016b. “Multi-Religiosity: Expanding research on ties to multiple faiths in the 21st century.” New Diversities. 18(1):37-52. (Invited Special Issue: Religion and Super-Diversity). Published article | PDF
  • Steele, Liza G. "Multiple Faiths." in Encyclopedia of Global Religion, edited by Wade Clark Roof and Mark Juergensmeyer. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412997898.n490