Abstract

GOULARD, JEAN-PIERRE. THE RITUAL METAMORPHOSIS: RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE AMAZONIAN AREA. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2012, vol.48, n.2, pp.15-37. ISSN 0486-6525.

The indigenous societies have undergone many changes, and more intensely so since the 19th century. Their relations with the outside, of which the white world is the main part, have led them to adopt strategies in order to survive. In this work, the autor analyzes how certain religious aspects inferred by the prophetic movements which prevail among the Tikuna, an Amazonian ethnic group, have determined and directed the changes inside this society. Through the choice of such an approach, the researcher shows that, in spite of what the members of the ethnic group have experienced, it has been possible for the Tikuna to preserve a system of faiths in constant dialogue with the life of the society. It is then relevant to consider that such a situation continues because its foundations consist in sociocultural invariants which can be discerned through the filter of a ritual metamorphosis, an operation which allows the members of this group to assert and claim their ethnic identity.

Keywords : tikuna; messianism; prophetism; shamanism; invariants.

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