Popular Religiosity and Ideological Pluralism. Religious and Political Meanings around Huelva’s Semana Santa

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between the process of secularisation or secularisation of religion and the growth of popular religious rituals in the context of modern contemporary societies based on an ethnographic analysis of the Holy Week ritual in the city of Huelva. Using a qualitative ethnographic methodology, interwoven with quantitative sociological research techniques, we analyse the religious and ideological-political meanings of the actors who participate in and produce this popular religious ritual, taking into account the diversity and pluralism of ideas that come into play around Holy Week and the relativisation of values, beliefs and practices that make it possible. It also analyses the anthropocentric and anthropomorphic characteristics that permeate the ritual and the collective relationship with religious icons.