Amerindian Perspectivism in the Mythicized Discourses of Popular Catholicism in the Amazon

Abstract

This article aims to problematize, through the theoretical contributions of the post-colonial studies, the catholic church’s colonization project towards the Amapaense Amazon’s popular catholicism - such as the Myth of Cobra Grande - constituted as a project evolved around eurocentric and judeo-christian assumptions to the detriment of afro-amerindian cultural, identity and religious expressions, of catholic communities in the urban and rural areas of the brazilian Amazon. The amazonian population develops strategies of resistance and re-existence in order to maintain their religious traditions around festa dos santos (festival of saints), pilgrimages, festivities, rosaries, quermesses, and other activities as forms of origins establishment or origins return for the foundation of a narrative identity..

Keywords

• popular catholicism; religions and religiosities in the amapaense amazon; narrative identity; post-colonialism.