Il rito del debito: la ricchezza del Santo in Messico, tra costrizione e desiderio

In Mexico, anthropological literature on religious festivals and cargo system has highlighted the link between Catholic religiosity, economic levelling and the subordination of the individual to social constraints. In this essay, based on the ethnography of the rituality of debt in Zacoalco de Torres (northwestern Mexico), I argue instead that the different ways of conceiving the desire for prosperity, including economic-one, show a deliberate willingness to bind oneself socially and economically to others, in the belief that this will bring well-being rather than impoverishment. The path to wealth lies in the fusion of ritual and devotional practice with the material form of monetary indebtedness.