Areruya and Indigenous Prophetism in Northern Amazonia

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Description

Based on four years of ethnographic research, this book discusses the presence of Christianity on Areruya, an indigenous religious movement practiced by the Ingarik 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 explores how the ancient mythological elaboration of salvation after death was reinforced through both an appropriation of some aspects of Christianity and the development of a very violent form of shamanism, which epitomizes the evilness ascribed to the human condition on earth.

Virgnia Amaral offers a valuable reflection on cultural transformations, revealing how Areruya is not only a shamanic appropriation of Christianity, but also an indigenous and ritualized interpretation of colonization.

Reviews

[The] book gives insights into ways in which Indigenous religions and Christian missions have historically interacted. It highlights different factors impacting emic and etic perceptions of body, spirit and personhood, and ways in which religious agency can be expressed and adapted especially in times of crisis and change. * BASR Bulletin *
A subtle and highly ingenious account of how people in Amazonia have created a cosmos, according to their own prophets, that sustains their sense of themselves in an otherwise crisis-ridden world. Given their devotions to a panoply of Christian figures and fervent preparations for heaven, this scintillating re-analysis of religious change at once challenges preconceptions about the colonisation of ideas and is a profound intervention in studies of Indigenous history. * Marilyn Strathern, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Uk *

Author Bio

Virgnia Amaral is a researcher currently associated with The National Museum, Brazil. She has been a collaborator of the Ingarik Indigenous People's Council for over ten years.