Religious Aspects of the Social Organization of a Castilian Village

The functional context of local religious practices within the structure of formal Catholicism in Spain has received little attention. Close examination of the ceremonial life of a Castilian village, and of the attitudes accompanying ceremonial and nonceremonial events, points to the existence of a complex of political and economic activities that are the chief objects of ritual sanctification and the arena in which religious sanctions function to maintain social control in the community. A survey of the ethnographic literature indicates that religious ceremonial may function in similar contexts in extended areas of the Iberian peninsula. The Castilian case and the available comparative data point to the crucial role of local religious traditions in strengthening territorial ties and in helping to define and integrate some of the fundamental units of the social structure.