The Ethnic Life of Missionaries: Early Inculturation Theology in Mato Grosso, Brazil (1952-1990)

Abstract

From the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, missionaries from several congregations in the southwestern Amazon region of Brazil, notably a group of young Jesuits, developed an avant la lettre radical brand of inculturation theology, based on close relations with academic anthropology and cultural relativism. By the 1990s, this “type” of inculturation became one of the missionary norms in the region; it was also instrumental in the creation and orientation of the Indigenist Missionary Council, the main missionary organization in Brazil. I explore the trajectories of three inculturation theology Jesuits who asserted the need to protect indigenous cultures, including their shamanic rituals.