Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

摘要

The anthropological study of religious change has gained importance, even urgency, as mission activity has expanded globally, and as traditional communities increasingly participate in global culture. Understanding how and why religious change takes place is a classic problem of social theory, and the editors of the current volume have made significant contributions to this issue in Amazonia. Robin Wright is noted for two earlier edited volumes on religious conversion, and Aparecida Vilapa for some of the most interesting and insightful work to be carried out on religion and religious change in Amazonia, based on her work with the Wari' Indians of Brazil. In this new collection, the contributors take up the issue of the indigenous experience of Christianity, asking not whether indigenous communities will embrace Christianity but how they have done so, and seeking the 'natives' point of view' of this new religion.