Missionary action and religious conversion in the Upper Xingu

• Grant number: 15/25926-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Roberto Guerreiro Júnior
• Grantee: Amanda Ferreira Simão
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/26676-0 - Transforming amerindian regional systems: the Upper Xingu case, AP.JP

Abstract

The objective of this project is to start an ethnography of religious conversion processes of Upper Xingu Indians occurring in the city of Canarana, MT. Missionary activities in the south of the Xingu Indigenous Park have always been very short, as the Indians until recently maintained themselves contrary to them. In recent years, however, some protestant missionaries were able to settle in a village for a reasonable period of time and, even after expelled, continue working in the surrounding municipalities. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the growth of these phenomena in Canarana, trying to describe the effects of missionary activities in the region and the meanings attributed to them by the Xinguano. The research will focus on indigenous perceptions of the phenomenon, trying to understand what, in contemporary indigenous thought and experience, may have been motivating them to approach or move away from christianity. (AU)