The article gives an overview over approaches to popular Catholicism in Brazil published in the last quarter of the 20th century within the Social Sciences. It is common to these publications that they consider both popular Catholicism opposed to Catholicism of the elite and its religious practice dominated by the veneration of traditional saints. It is argued that these approaches shift from a religion-politics context to the religion-culture context. To exemplify the consequences of this shift the article demonstrates how the articles of the chosen social scientists perceive and interpret contemporary Marian cults.