Negotiating Respect: Pentecostalism, Masculinity, and the Politics of Spiritual Authority in the Dominican Republic is a comprehensive ethnographic account of Pentecostal Christianity in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic. Based on over two years of fieldwork in a barrio of Villa Altagracia, Negotiating Respectexamines the everyday practices of Pentecostal community members and the complex ways in which they negotiate legitimacy, recognition, and spiritual authority under the constraints of religious pluralism and Catholic cultural supremacy. Engaging questions about gender ... More

Negotiating Respect: Pentecostalism, Masculinity, and the Politics of Spiritual Authority in the Dominican Republic is a comprehensive ethnographic account of Pentecostal Christianity in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic. Based on over two years of fieldwork in a barrio of Villa Altagracia, Negotiating Respectexamines the everyday practices of Pentecostal community members and the complex ways in which they negotiate legitimacy, recognition, and spiritual authority under the constraints of religious pluralism and Catholic cultural supremacy. Engaging questions about gender, masculinity, and faith from an anthropological perspective, this book considers in detail the lives of young male churchgoers and their struggles with conversion and life in the streets. An exploration of the church and its relationship to barrio institutions like youth gangs and so-called Dominican vodú, further draws out the meaningful nuances of lived religion and provides new insights into the social organization of belief locally and the significance of Pentecostal growth and popularity globally. By focusing on the cultural politics of belief and the role religious identity plays in poor urban communities, Negotiating Respect illuminates the social dynamics of Pentecostal culture in practice and offers a fresh perspective on religious pluralism and the ever-evolving contours of contemporary religious and cultural change.