Richard Dawkins' concept of memes as defining elements of a culture could be useful. Each specific belief within a culture can be a considered meme, a building block of culture. In cross-cultural psychology, cultures share some beliefs (or memes) while other beliefs (memes) differ between cultures. In cultural history, some beliefs remain the same over time while some beliefs change with time.

These concepts can be used to explain both the cross-cultural differences and the historical changes that occurred in the context that interests you.

Dear Dr. Luengo

Your problem is related to the old concept of "ethnogenesis," the way a group of people acquire an ethnic identity. See the wikipedia article for an introduction to this literature.  For the formation of local identies is Latin America in the wake of the Iberian conquest, see George Foster's classic book.He argued that Iberia was rife with petty local religious heresies reflecting local identities. The Catholic Church went to some trouble to select settlers that we orthodox in their beliefs so as to keep the Americas free of such heresies. But the Indian and Mestizo communities in the Americas preserved pre-Hispanic beliefs or reinvented new ones reflecting local identities. Foster's work more generally will provide you an introduction to the large anthropological literature on Latin America. Cultural evolutionists like myself have paid some attention to making a formal evolutionary theory of these processes. Social psychologists have a useful literature called social identity theory.

Best, Pete

Foster, G. M. (1960). Culture and conquest: America's Spanish heritage. New York: Werner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc.

McElreath, R., Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. (2003). Shared norms can lead to the evolution of ethnic markers. Current Anthropology, 44(1), 123-129.

Haslam, S. A. (2001). Psychology in Organizations: The Social Identity Approach. London: Sage Publications.

You might take a look at a recently published essay of mine.  It has come out in French in Paris (with UNESCO) and will soon be available in several other languages.

"Nepantla, rencontres culturelles et litterature: Amerique latine, Inde, et Japon,"  Diogene, 246-247 (avril-septembre 2014): 23-45.   [sorry about the lack of accents...]

 I'd recommend taking a look at "A social history of psychology" edited by J. Jansz and P. van Drunen (2004), especially Ch. 5. They do a nice job of situating cross-cultural psychology in historical context. 

Hola: tu pregunta viene muy al caso. El mejor acercamiento al tema que conozco seria lo del antropologo Alan MacFarlane, de Escocia; y Merecedes de la Garza, de Mexico. MacFarlane es de una epoca muy anterior; M. de la Garza es contemporanea. Ambos son autoridades destacadas en el estudio de la Epoca Temprana Moderna, tanto en las Americas como en Europa. M. de la Garza, en sus ensayos sobre el uso de plantas medicinales entre los nahuas y mayas, antes de la Conquista y durante la epoca colonial, combina hallazgos psicologicos y antropologicos proviniendo de los pueblos estudiados, en lugar de confiar en la mirada del observador extranjero. Y Mac Farlane, en sus estudios sobre los cambios de modelo de las monarquias europeas en el Renacimiento/Barroco, sintetizo muy bien las incipientes investigaciones de la psico-historia con la historia cultural. Estan mas relacionados con Marc Bloch y su historia de mentalidades, aunque no acaten rigidamente a los dictamenes del dicho supuesto.

Dear Pedro,

There are several works which could be interesting for you:

Richard Sugg, The smoke of the soul. Medicine, physiology and religion in early moderne England. 2013. Sugg is analysing in details the connexion between physiology, anatomy and the materiality of the soul. Very original and historical book

The introduction of the book Emotions  and Health, 1200-1700, 2013, written by Elena Carrera could be very helpful. Carrera write a long theoritical and historiographical texte on the way to think emotions in the past. Many other papers of this book could be more specifically helpful as well.

Furthermore, the concept of bioculture could be an intersing one to think about cultural history and psychological history. David B. Morris has worked on it. One of is interesting paper is Reading Is Always Biocultural, New Literary History, vol. 37, n° 3, p. 539 and fol.

Best regards

Micheline

        “A Prolegomenon to Jewish Cultural History,” Jewish Studies: An Internet Journal (JSIJ) 1

 (2001).

Si, recomiendo los trabajos de Alan Mac Farlane, que hizo estudios pioneros en el campo de historia y estudios culturales y antropología; combinado con los trabajos clásicos de Marc Bloch, de la escuela anales de Francia y con su aporte a la historia de mentalidades....ellos proveen una base para la fusion de historia, estudios culturales y psicología en la época temprana moderna, el otrora llamado "Renacimiento." MacFarlane se enfocaba en la historia medieval y temprano-moderna de las islas britanicas e Irlanda; Marc Bloch se enfocaba en Francia, y las actitudes hacia judios y huguenotes, en el siglo XVI. De America Latina recomiendo fuertemente a Cornejo Polar, de Peru, cuyo análisis de la Conquista en los Andes, (y sus secuelas psicológicas para la identidad fragmentada y variada de los países andinos, tanto en la época colonial como en la época contemporánea), es de gran valor y también mucha originalidad. Me refiero ante todo a su idea de pugna mental irresuelta como cimiento de la historia andina colonial y actual.