“A Little Bit Christian”: Memories of Conversion and Community in Post-Christian Amazonia

Abstract

Conversion to Christianity in Amazonia is often described in terms of collective action rather than radically new beliefs interior to the individual. I describe how Waorani people in Ecuador remember the conversion of specific elders as a time of civilization that brought Waorani into a wider social order after a period of violence and isolation. Despite having largely abandoned Christianity since their mass conversion in the 1960s, Waorani today embrace past conversion as a catalyst of social transformation that they say made the present ideal of living in a "community" possible. The individual experiences evoked in memories of collective "civilization" and an insistence on personal autonomy in Waorani visions of community illustrate why the moral commentaries of Waorani Christians remain highly valued in communities where Christianity has ceased to be a dominant social identity. [conversion to Christianity, memory, temporality, Amazonian personhood, community, Waorani] RESUMEN La conversión al cristianismo en la Amazonía es a menudo descrita en términos de una acción colectiva más que radicalmente nuevas creencias interiores para el individuo. Describo cómo los waorani en el Ecuador recuerdan la conversión de determinados adultos mayores como un período de "civilización" que trajo a los waorani a un orden social más amplio después de un período de violencia y aislamiento. A pesar de haber abandonado largamente el cristianismo desde su conversión masiva en los 1960s, los waorani hoy asumen su pasado como un catalizador de transformación social que ellos dicen hizo posible el actual ideal de vivir en comunidad. Las experiencias individuales evocadas en memorias de "civilización" colectiva y una insistencia en autonomía personal en las visiones waorani de comunidad ilustran por qué los comentarios morales de los cristianos waorani permanecen altamente valorados en comunidades donde el cristianismo ha cesado de ser una identidad social dominante.[conversión al cristianismo, temporalidad de memoria, condición de personas de los Amazonenses, comunidad, Waorani]

Christian Modernisation in Amazonia

“…Indigenous people are said to have seen Christian missionaries and priests as simply a new kind of shaman possessing new shamanistic techniques (Gow 2009;Hugh-Jones 1994;Laugrand and Oosten 2009;Santos-Granero 2004;Taylor 1981), while indigenous enthusiasm for Christian practices like singing (McNally 2000;Yvinec 2019) and preaching (Albó 1988: 363-400;Romio 2018) is considered to have roots in pre-Christian Indigenous life. Conversion has also been understood as an occasion to renew extant ideals of sociality by living together in communities centred on a church or mission (Capiberibe 2018;Gow 2001;High 2016), in the process creating new kinds of bodies while retaining the body as the principal site of personhood (Bonilla 2009;Cova 2015;Opas 2016).…”