Items related to The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul: The Encounter of...

The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul: The Encounter of Catholics and Cannibals in 16-century Brazil - Softcover

Viveiros De Castro, Eduardo

  • 4.41 out of 5 stars
    117 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780984201013: The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul: The Encounter of Catholics and Cannibals in 16-century Brazil
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0984201017 ISBN 13: 9780984201013
Publisher: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2011

Synopsis


In the mid-sixteenth century, Jesuit missionaries working in what is now Brazil were struck by what they called the inconstancy of the people they met, the indigenous Tupi-speaking tribes of the Atlantic coast. Though the Indians appeared eager to receive the Gospel, they also had a tendency to forget the missionaries’ lessons and “revert” to their natural state of war, cannibalism, and polygamy. This peculiar mixture of acceptance and rejection, compulsion and forgetfulness was incorrectly understood by the priests as a sign of the natives’ incapacity to believe in anything durably.

In this pamphlet, world-renowned Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro situates the Jesuit missionaries’ accounts of the Tupi people in historical perspective, and in the process draws out some startling and insightful implications of their perceived inconstancy in relation to anthropological debates on culture and religion.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Eduardo Viveiros de Castro teaches anthropology at the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro. Flávio Gordon and Francisco Araújo are PhD students at the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Prickly Paradigm Press
Publication date
2011
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0984201017
ISBN 13 
9780984201013
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
104
Rating
  • 4.41 out of 5 stars
    117 ratings by Goodreads