Pre-Columbian spiritualities
Before the arrival of the conquistadors, the great pre-Columbian civilizations were confined to certain areas such as the Andean regions and Mesoamerica. Costa Rica developed away from the great civilizations such as the Aztecs, in present-day Mexico, and the Mayas in the present-day territories of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Weakly populated, this small hostile territory was however located at the confluence of several civilizations. Due to the lack of reliable data, again because of the absence of writing and scattered populations, it is impossible to determine the actual number of inhabitants before the 15th century. However, estimates are around 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants.
The tribal chiefs, called "caciques", held their power from their ancestors and transmitted their authority from father to son. Beyond their role as chiefs, they were also healers and intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds. Attached to shamanism and animism, the people who occupied pre-Columbian Costa Rica were not dominated by any other civilization and, without a really defined political and social framework, all the villages fought mercilessly. Different warriors from different tribes organized incursions into enemy territory in order to capture prisoners, to make slaves of them or to offer them in sacrifice. Regarding this last practice, the Poás volcano, located in the current province of Alajuela, was a privileged place to offer captured young virgins to the enemy. Throated or thrown alive by priests in the caldera (crater), they were sacrificed as offerings to the gods. Even if the internal conflicts lead us to believe that the territory was divided, certain traces of objects found nevertheless prove the existence of common beliefs. Painted black and red, several objects conveyed a religious message: black represented the realm of the dead while red symbolized the sun. These potteries are found in the Papagayo culture in Guanacaste, as well as in the Huetar culture in the Central Valley.
Bribris and Cabécares: in spiritual contact with the Earth
Although they speak two different languages, the Bribris and the Cabecares form a single ethnic group traditionally known as the Talamanca people, a term derived from their home territory, the Talamanca jungle. Composed of approximately 20,000 people, this large family shares the same belief system and is relatively well known for its connection to the Earth. Bribris and Cabécares transmit from generation to generation the spirituality of the Mother Earth. For most ethnic groups, the Earth is a living being, an independent and immortal being, which is born, grows, gives life and maintains the cycle of the living world. This spirituality is also a philosophy: nature builds their identity and is not just a resource. These communities hold a true reading of the forest, each plant and each tree telling something. The plants also have a vibratory energy and the tribes connect to this energy in order to heal many ills.
Preserved by the shamans, this cosmogony has as its central figure Sibú, also called Sibö or Zipoh. In the words of Carlos Aguilar, a famous Costa Rican archaeologist, "Sibu is the Supreme Being, the Great Spirit, omnipotent and omnipresent. He represents the spirit of good, he is respected, but not feared, not venerated, not adored. According to the legend, the primitive world, plunged in darkness, was populated by evil beings, the Sòrburus. One of them, Sibökomo, was the first "awa", in other words the first shaman. This title gave him certain powers, including those of holding magic stones which transmitted to him the idea of creating life on Earth. However, the Sòrburus had withered the surface of the Earth to the point of sterility, making it impossible for the seeds of man to germinate. Sibökomo, determined to create life, decided to take his niece Sìitami, made of earth, hostage. One day, one of these male stones got lost inside Sìitami: the girl became pregnant and gave birth to their son Sibú nine months later. When he was born, the Sorburus tried to kill him, but a colony of ants hid him until he grew up and returned to fight his enemies, including Sórkula, the most powerful of them, whom he defeated by trickery.
Finally, an important aspect of the religious manifestations of the Talamanqueños is their funeral rites. These rites correspond to a first burial in which the wrapped corpse is left in the forest to decompose, and then to a secondary burial in which the bones are buried in the forest. During these rites, funeral songs accompany the soul of the deceased to the house of Sulá. Father of the Earth, called Iriria, Sulá offered seeds to Sibú in order to create the human species. Thus, Sulá shaped the humans one by one, deciding for each one of his personality and his characteristics. The men were created from clay before being bathed in the waters of the river. In a testimony given by a Bribri shaman to the anthropologist María Eugenia Bozzoli, we learn: "It is there, in the waters where they washed us. Sula bathes our flesh in these colored waters that he owns. If I am dark, my water is opaque, if you are white, your water is clear. This is how Sibö and Sulá planned it.
Evangelization through the Catholic religion
Founded in 1535, the Viceroyalty of Spain was intended to manage the resources of the colonies. At the time, the territory did not attract much interest from the crown, and it was not until 1561 that Juan de Cavallón Arboleda, a Spanish conquistador, and Father Juan de Estrada Rávago began to colonize a territory where social and religious life was minimal. The priests were confronted with depopulated churches and made several attempts to encourage the population to attend mass. The evangelization of the indigenous population became a priority in order to implant the Catholic religion in the territory. Spanish missionaries were commissioned to subdue the various tribes and were ordered to wage a "just war" in case of rebellion by the caciques. This forced evangelization was accompanied by looting, conversion to slavery and torture. For the populations that did not submit, a whole range of punishments was applied by the Catholic Church through the Inquisition. Perafán de Rivera, Viceroy of Catalonia and supporter of the Inquisition, began the system of encomiendas. This system was a pretext to nip in the bud any plans for rebellion, and it allowed the colonists to have a native workforce while committing themselves to the evangelization of the different tribes. Theoretically, the system of encomiendas was illegal; only the Spanish Crown had the power to establish it. But, disinterested in the logistical management of the Costa Rican colony, the Spanish Crown failed to take care of the organization of the colonization of the territory and the encomiendas followed their course. In the following centuries, Catholicism infiltrated all ethnic groups and cultures: the Church intervened more with these peoples to convert them, considering them demonic. These peoples wanted to break the link with their so-called pagan culture and did not care about saving their cultural identity. Thus, many indigenous people turned to the Catholic faith after realizing that their spirituality was declining. Until the middle of the 19th century, the country was made up of two religions: the Catholic religion and the indigenous religion, known as animist. In 1750, for 29,268 inhabitants, there were approximately 17,000 Christians and 12,212 natives with local beliefs. Today, Catholicism is the state religion. Article 75 of the current Constitution states: "The Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion is that of the State; the State contributes to its maintenance without preventing the free exercise, in the Republic, of other religions that are not opposed to universal morality or good manners.
Religion and spirituality since the 19th century
Today, approximately 70% of Costa Ricans identify themselves as Catholic and 5.4% as Protestant. Protestantism arrived in Costa Rica at the end of the 19th century along with British traders and black Caribbean populations. Despite a trust in the seemingly infallible Church, the numbers began to change in the mid-twentieth century: slightly less religious and much less practicing, Costa Ricans opened up to other forms of beliefs and spiritualities. From the 1960s, nearly 10,000 inhabitants out of 1.5 million claimed to be atheists, but the Christian religion still held a monopoly over indigenous spiritualities, which were then in total perdition. In the early 1970s, Bahaism, an Abrahamic and monotheistic religion proclaiming the spiritual unity of humanity, became popular and was the third most practiced religion in the country. Following scandals linked to sexual assaults on minors by priests, the Church is in turmoil and the confidence of Costa Ricans in the Church continues to fall considerably. Tired of the image of a Church that had become too conservative, Costa Ricans turned to other religions and beliefs than Catholicism. Since the late 1990s, various sects, mainly from the United States, have settled in Costa Rica. In addition, a small Jewish community and religions from the Far East now number several thousand followers. In 2022, the country still has 4.7 million Christians and 420,000 atheists. Costa Ricans claim to be practising Catholics: they hold baptisms, go to church for weddings and maintain religious ceremonies for funerals. The different events related to Catholicism are above all folkloric traditions that have become cultural: small villages still celebrate religious festivals in order to mark their identity, to maintain their traditions and to attract many tourists. Every August 2nd, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels in Cartago gathers millions of pilgrims around "La Negrita", the Black Virgin declared patroness of Costa Rica and protector of the Americas.
