Emerging Scholar Seeks Funding Support for Cutting-Edge Research on Santa Muerte as Agent of Female Empowerment

As an adjunct professor of anthropology Dr. Kate Kingsbury is not eligible for most research funding that is available to permanent and tenured professors so she has launched a Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds from individual contributors. Many readers of Skeleton Saint are already familiar with her incisive work that focuses on the … Continue reading Emerging Scholar Seeks Funding Support for Cutting-Edge Research on Santa Muerte as Agent of Female Empowerment

Mighty Mexican Mothers: Santa Muerte as Female Empowerment in Oaxaca

As the sole female folk saint of death in the Americas, Santa Muerte has a special appeal to women, especially disprivileged Mexican mothers . In the piece below anthropologist Dr. Kate Kingsbury* considers the contours of devotion among rural women in coastal Oaxaca. -Rural Oaxaca, the outskirts of Pochutla, Mexico When we got home one … Continue reading Mighty Mexican Mothers: Santa Muerte as Female Empowerment in Oaxaca

House of Holy Death – The Santa Muerte Shrine of Michoacan

The Santa Muerte shrine in the tiny Michoacan town of Santa Ana Chapitiro is one of the most impressive in Mexico and a testament to the dynamism of the fastest growing new religious movement in the Americas. Built by a recently deceased devotee from Mexico City, it contains hundreds of exquisite handcrafted images of the … Continue reading House of Holy Death – The Santa Muerte Shrine of Michoacan