Varieties of Amazonian Shamanism

Bibliographic Data

ID3896722
AuthorsJean-Pierre Chaumeil (Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume40
Issue158
Pages101-113
Publication date1992-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiogenes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0392-1921 • E-ISSN: 1467-7695
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/039219219204015809
OpenAlexW2090876889
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited1

The penetration of the Amazon region by the great religious movements of Europe and Africa began with the first phases of colonial domination, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The initial influence to be felt was Iberian Catholicism (the religion of the conquerors), which spread along the rivers as missions sprang up here and there. This period of missionary activity continued for over a century, bringing with it a host of consequences, most notably waves of epidemics that killed millions of natives. Nevertheless, an initial "syncretic alliance" was forged in the missions between shamanism and Catholicism.From another quarter came legions of black slaves, exiled to the New World during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to replace the decimated native workforce; with them they brought their own religions and religious practices, which they transplanted, in a more or less transformed state, to all corners of the South American continent. The resulting Afro-American religions were practiced secretly by broad masses and in this way were fused with Amerindian religions (the case of pagelano in Brazil) and with "official" forms of Catholicism (tcmbanda and candomblé, among others

Amazon rainforest · Amazonian · Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Shamanism · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Social Representations and Identity · Ecology

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