Areruya and Indigenous Prophetism in Northern Amazonia

(Hardback)

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Based on four years of ethnographic research, this book discusses the influence of Christianity on Areruya, an indigenous religious movement practiced by the Ingariko in Northern Amazonia. Tracing the role of 19th-century missionaries in the region, the book shows how shamans started to announce the coming of a cataclysm, associated with the promise of indigenous salvation in Christian paradise and the acquisition of the colonizers goods. It also cites how the ancient mythological elaboration of salvation after death in Areruya was reinforced through both an appropriation of some aspects of Christianity, and concomitantly, the development of a very violent form of shamanism, which epitomizes the evilness ascribed to the human condition on earth. This book is valuable as a reflection on cultural transformations, revealing how Areruya is not only a shamanic appropriation of Christianity, but also an indigenous and ritualized interpretation of colonization, whereby exogenous elements are corporally translated.

Author Bio

Virgnia Amaral is a postdoctoral researcher with the Balzan Project Ethnographic Horizons at University of St Andrews, UK.