Areruya and Indigenous Prophetism in Northern Amazonia

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A01=Virginia Amaral
Amerindian
Author_Virginia Amaral
Brazil
Category=JHMC
Category=QRM
Category=QRRT
colonization
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
Guyana
indigenous
Ingariko
Kapon
missionary
mythology
Pemon
shaman
Venezuela

Product details

  • ISBN 9781350338739
  • Weight: 440g
  • Dimensions: 154 x 232mm
  • Publication Date: 19 Mar 2026
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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Based on four years of ethnographic research, this book discusses the presence of Christianity on Areruya, an indigenous religious movement practiced by the Ingarikó 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.

Virgínia 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.

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

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