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
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.
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