Christian Modernisation in Amazonia
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology September 1, 2022 DOI: 10.3167/cja.2022.400209 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shuar people in southeast Ecuador, including Shuar Evangelicals and practitioners of ancestral Shuar healing |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that for animist Shuar, Protestant Evangelicalism constitutes a step toward philosophical materialism or 'naturalism', and that Shuar Evangelicals' preference for engaging only the material qualities of medicinal plants reflects not a disenchanted cosmology but a submissive mode of relating to the immaterial aspects of reality normally engaged in ancestral Shuar ontology. |
Abstract
The project of ontological anthropology expounded by Philippe Descola has unexplored merits for a critical and secular anthropology of Christian conversion in indigenous societies. Drawing on Shuar descriptions of their healing practice in a context of medical pluralism in southeast Ecuador, this article argues that for animist peoples, Protestant Evangelicalism constitutes a step toward philosophical materialism or ‘naturalism’. While Shuar healing reserves a central place for hallucinogenic plant-induced visions for personal empowerment and shamanic healing, Shuar Evangelicals express a preference for engaging only the material qualities of medicinal plants. This is not, however, the consequence of adopting a disenchanted material cosmology but of a submissive mode of relating to the immaterial aspects of reality normally engaged in ancestral Shuar ontology. The article thereby extends the ontological turn’s emphasis on what is known to a consideration of modes of relation to ontological content.