Abstract
The class analyses of the Latin American societies have not paid much attention to religion. It is however a fundamental aspect of popular culture. And in the peripheral-capitalist social formations, it plays a key role in many aspects of the system of representations. The article tries first to establish the function of religion (Catholicism) in the genesis of social classes at the beginning of mercantile capitalism on the con tinent. Built on pre-existing societies (clannic or tributary), the new system shaped new social classes. In this process, Catholicism has to a great extent been an instrument of metro politan hegemony, as much through its ideological functions as through its institutional action. This is well known.