The Study of Indian Religions in Latin America

Abstract

In the present paper, we examine the current state of the study of Indian religions in Latin America. An important investigation on the study of Sanskrit outside India conveys the image that the situation of the study of Indian religions in Latin America is perceived internationally as an activity carried out by isolated scholars. Relevant analyses on the Study of Religion in Latin America, on the other hand, show that many social scientists of the region tend to overlook the presence and the effect that religious phenomena linked to Indian culture have over the religious scenario of Latin American countries. The exam of the field we carry out in this paper, in contrast, seeks to demonstrate that the study of Indian religions in Latin America is neither an isolated phenomenon nor an issue disregarded by all social scientists. In order to corroborate our point of view, we discuss, in the first place, the orientation and activities of the main scholarly centers dedicated to the field, and the larger academic areas in which the study of Indian religions appears to be included. We survey, in the second place, the works of important scholars of the region published in the present decade with the purpose of analyzing the main tendencies of current research and of showing which are the main editorial channels involved in the circulation of such works. Our study provides, thus, substantial information on the current state of the field in the region and suggests that the conditions are favorable enough for the field to attain, in the near future, a considerable degree of regional integration and international projection.