Digital Commons Network^™

The Roman Catholic Church's Institutionalized Biases: Syncretic Processes In Tanzania, Julian M. Murchison

Southern Anthropologist

My ethnographic fieldwork in Tanzania suggests that many Tanzanian Roman Catholics would prefer for the Church to adopt more syncretic practices drawing on autochthonous customs, symbols, and ideas. Thoughts and suggestions from Tanzanians on this topic incorporate a wide variety of possibilities. Nevertheless, the present situation in the Roman Catholic Church in Tanzania seems to diverge significantly from these possibilities. Given this context, my paper will describe and examine the connections between the organizational structure of the Roman Catholic Church and syncretic manifestations in the Church in Tanzania. I will analyze the relation between the locations of decision-making and authority …