Resumo

LOPEZ MENENDEZ, Marisol. La humanidad de los mártires: Notas para el estudio sociohistórico del martirio. Intersticios sociales [online]. 2015, n.10, pp.1-23. ISSN 2007-4964.

The paper aims at interpreting martyrdom as a narrative and as a heuristic device. It underlines the importance of acknowledging the social causes martyrs stood for and stresses the significance of activism and militancy to create and promote martyrial figures. Martyrdom is thus interpreted as an epistemological space where the political and the religious spheres converge to challenge many of the usual distinctions that shape modern political thinking. Moreover, the study of modern martyrs shows the malleability of religious beliefs and practices and can be used as an avenue to track down sociopolitical change and to help to explain social mobilization patterns. Martyrial narratives are useful to this purpose when studied in light of specific historical developments and activism. These tend to modify the narratives themselves and to change the meaning assigned to the martyr's death.

Palavras-chave : religion; martyrdom; hagiography; narratives; sociology.