Religion and the Awakening of Indigenous People in Latin America

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Abstract
The “awakening” of the indigenous people of Latin America raises the following question: is it accompanied by a religious revitalization and a return to ancestral beliefs and rituals? Religion is, indeed, present in protests and visible movements such as those in Mexico or Ecuador, but religion does not appear to be the principal factor or the deepest source of these movements. Thus, alongside the rapid expansion of evangelicals (especially Pentecostals) among the indigenous communities, we also observe the higher profile and the increased respect achieved by ancestral indigenous religious traditions. Elsewhere, intense missionary activity by various churches has contributed to the emergence of new indigenous leaders, and shamanic rituals function as a means of reaffirmation of ethnic identity and in support of the struggle to recover ancestral lands, a struggle which is acquiring a sacred character. The battle is political and ethnic; it is fought for recognition of indigenous rights, for the specificity of people and their communities, for their ancestral lands, and for their cultural expression. Belief is by no means uniform among indigenous peoples. But there is no doubt that religion is a part of the process of recovery of ethnic identity, even though it is under threat from globalization.

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