Paper short abstract:

Through a comparative data collected in multisited fieldworks in Hare Krishna communities in Brazil, England, Spain and India, I will explore how devotees can readjust different modes of institutionalization in order to keep their identities locally and spread their communities in a global way.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to consider to what extent individuals might be institutionalized by a religious tradition. I assumed two modes of institutionalization: the private mode and the public one. Following this approach, a brief description of three life histories of western individuals who joined at Gaudya Vaishnavism (ISKCON) will expose these modes of institutionalization. Based on changes in their life experiences, across the knowledge of such tradition, they readjusted and reinterpreted their religious conceptions and practices in accordance with a local and a global mode of institutionalization. However, a brief consideration will be carried out in order to give evidences of these institutional dynamics that, simultaneously, create equality and alterity for individuals own a meaning of religion identity and a sense of ownership into a religious community.