Territories of beliefs

Abstract

This article will present the main findings of the doctoral thesis "Territorios de creencia. Cultural practices of young evangelicals in Comodoro Rivadavia" on two central axes. The first one refers to present the analytical proposal regarding the understanding of Pentecostalism as a territory of beliefs with different dimensions that constitute it. These dimensions include its history, its spatial presence, ethical and aesthetic postulates, norms and uses of the body, and also its borders and frontiers -always porous-. In this territory there are multiple positions and ways of inhabiting it, between the normative and instituted ones and the ones that the subjects themselves are creating. The second point of the exhibition refers to the relationship between music and evangelical beliefs, seeking to understand the fluidity, the movement and the multiple ways in which Pentecostal evangelical beliefs are produced, circulated and re-created through cultural practices, recognizing innovations, but also continuities and sedimentations. The focus is placed on the study of the practices and experiences of young Christians who produce, consume, discuss and question cultural goods -especially music-, showing their capacity of agency to produce, negotiate and dynamize the evangelical culture.