CHAPTER EIGHT

INDIAN MISSIONARY OR PASTOR?

REFLECTIONS ON A RELIGIOUS TRAJECTORY
IN THE AMAZON
PARIDE BOLLETTIN

In many ethnographies devoted to Indigenous peoples of the Amazon

there appears more or less explicitly the presence of Christian missionaries
working within the local collectivities. In this text, however, I will not
develop an analysis of these agents activities, but I shall present the
history of a member of the Mebengokr community, who live along the
Bakaj River in the Brazilian Amazon. My proposal is that through this
specific parabola it is possible to provide some features of local
experience. To do this I will first describe the context of this ethnographic
analysis and then describe some especially relevant moments for
understanding the current situation. Finally, I will try to place this
trajectory within the process of meaning experienced daily by the
Mebengokr.1

My research with this group includes three periods in the field, respectively in
2005, 2006 and between 2008 and 2009: nine months in total. About this specific
group, the most relevant writings were produced by Willian Fisher in Dualism
and its discontent: social process and village fissioning among the Xikrin-Kayap
of central Brazil (PhD diss., Cornell University, 1991), and in Rain Forest
Exchange (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000), by Clarice Cohn,
Relaes de Diferena no Brasil Central: os Mebengokr e seus Outros (PhD
diss., Universidade de So Paulo, 2005), and by Paride Bollettin, Identit in
trasformazione. Pratiche e mitologie a Mrtidjam, un villaggio del Brasile
centrale (PhD diss., Universit degli Studi di Siena, 2011). I wish to thank Marta
Amoroso, Sergio Botta and Marc Brightman for their comments on the previous
versions of this text.

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This narrative strategy is intended to highlight that any situation in

which two different cosmological visions2 meet one another is made up of
different times, so the analysis has to follow the interface between the
agents actions and the relational networks in which they act.3 This
requires us to overlook neither the context in which actions are realised
nor the voices of the agents involved. This remark may seem trivial, but it
is common that analysis focused on this matter is biased for or against
specific agents. Therefore, I will not express an opinion on individuals or
organisations, but will try to show how a process of resemantisation of
practices, ideas and rhetoric takes place.
Besides this methodological consideration, I think it is important to
outline an ethnographic context within which to situate this text. The
classics of social thought addressed the theme of religion, seeing in this an
important key to access an understanding of social life.4 An important
reference to highlight the boundaries of the debates within the Amazon is
certainly represented by the text of Viveiros de Castro which addresses the
historical topic of the conversion of the Tupinambas to Christianity.5 In the
text, the author shows how it was not an individual and religious
conversion, but a collective phenomenon that must be investigated from
the native point of view. Likewise, Gow claims that the Jesuits or the
anthropologists view Christianity differently from what it means from an
Indigenous perspective.6 Other authors take into account missionary

I use the term cosmology not as a provocation, but because I understand that
any worldview which tries to explain in holistically the actual situation and its
meaning is a specific way of thinking about reality and so constitutes a
cosmology. From this perspective, a theology, which aims to explain the
purposes of the world, or a cosmogony, which deals with origins, fits within this
kind of discourse. Starting from this idea, I aim to see how the Mebengokr and
the protestant missionaries meet each other.
3
Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-NetworkTheory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
4
See, for example, the works of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, to name a few of the
best known. Obviously, this reflection passed across an important segment of the
successive reflections as well, but this is not the place to perform a broad overview
of those works. Other works are useful for this; see among others Alessandra
Ciattini, Antropologia delle religioni (Roma: Carocci, 1997), and Enrico Comba,
Antropologia delle religioni. Unintroduzione (Bari-Roma: Laterza, 2008).
5
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, O mrmore e a murta: sobre a inconstncia da alma
selvagem, Revista de Antropologia 35 (1992): 21-74.
6
Peter Gow, Christians: A Transforming Concept in Peruvian Amazonia, in
Native Christians. Modes and Effects of Christianity among Indigenous Peoples of

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

193

strategies that determined the adhesion of large sections of the Indigenous

population to the Christian religion, highlighting the dialectic between
catechesis and education.7 Others topics analysed by other authors are: the
conflicts between religious and local populations,8 the relation between
different concepts of person through care of the body,9 religion as an
instrument of separation and as an element of vindication of a difference,10
or as a specific form of reflection about the relationship with others from
a local point of view,11 among others. In recent years, some collective
works have indicated the complexity of encounters between Indigenous
groups and missionaries, both historically and presently, emphasising the
process of cultural mediation,12 or the necessity of correlating
missionaries discourses with missionaries practices on the one hand, and
with Indigenous cosmologies and institutions on the other hand.13

the Americas, ed. Aparecida Vilaa and Robin Wright (Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate,
2009), 46.
7
Marta Rosa Amoroso, Mudana de hbito. Catequese e educao para ndios nos
aldeamentos capuchinhos, Revista Brasileira de Cincias Sociais 13, no. 37
(1998): 101-114.
8
See Odair Giraldin, Catequese e Civilizao. Os Capuchinhos entre os
Selvagens do Araquaia e Tocantins, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emlio Goeldi
18, no. 2 (2002): 27-42, and Valria Nely Czar de Carvalho, Profanazione e
trasformazione: la catechesi cattolica tra le popolazioni indigene del nordovest
amazzonico, in Ricerca sul campo in Amazzonia. 2008: resoconti di studio, ed.
Bollettin Paride and Mondini Umberto (Roma: Bulzoni, 2009).
9
Vanessa Grotti, Protestant Evangelism and the transformability of Amerindian
bodies in Northeastern Amazonia, in Native Christians. Modes and Effects of
Christianity among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, ed. Aparecida Vilaa and
Robin Wright (Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate, 2009), 109-125.
10
Artionka Capiberibe, Nas duas margens do rio: alteridade e transformaes
entre os Palikur na fronteira Brasil/Guiana francesa/Artionka Capiberibe (PhD
diss., Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 2009).
11
Marlia Sene de Loureno, A presena do antigos em tempo de converso.
Etnografia dos Kaingan do Oeste paulista (Masters thesis, Universidade Federal
de So Carlos, 2011).
12
Paula Monteiro, ed., Deus na aldeia: missionrios, ndios e mediao cultural
(So Paulo: Globo, 2006).
13
See Robin Wright, ed., Trasformando os deuses: os multiplos sentos da
converso entre os povos indgenas do Brasil (Campinas: Editora da Unicamp,
1999). There are also works that offer a more general perspective comparing
different experiences across the Americas; see: Aparecida Vilaa and Robin
Wright, eds., Native Christians. Modes and effects of Christianity among
Indigenous peoples of the Americas (Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate, 2009).

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In this context of studies with varied and different approaches, I think

it interesting not only to describe the events that led Kapoto, the
protagonist of the events I will recount, to become a pastor or a
missionary (I will return to this distinction), but also how they were used
and built by him. To do this I will begin by describing the process of the
arrival of Christianity in the Trincheira-Bakaj Indigenous Area, where we
find the village of Mrtidjam, in which he lives with his family.

The Arrival of Christianity

The history of contact between the Kayapo Mebengokr and Christian
missionaries dates back to the early 1930s among the Gorotire, by means
of the action of the Misso de Evangelizao Mundial, the name of the
International Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ in Brazil.14 This
activity seems to have begun due to the failure in health care from the
Brazilian Government, and successively through school activities. It may
have declined in importance both due to the progressive expansion of
Gorotire involvement into the regional economy and the establishment of
14
Terence Turner, De cosmologia a Histria: resistncia, adaptao e conscincia
social entre os Kayap, in Amaznia: etnologia e histria indgena, ed. Eduardo
Viveiros de Castro and Manuela Carneiro da Cunha (So Paulo: NHIIUSP/FAPESP, 1993), 43-66. The Mebengokr of the Trincheira-Bakaj
Indigenous Area are commonly called Xikrin, a term by which they identify
themselves and which they use to differentiate themselves from other MebengokreKayap groups (for a discussion of the meanings of those ethnonyms, see
Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione). Throughout this text, however, I chose to
use the term Mebengokr (literally those who come from the middle of the
waters), because it is a self-definition. Therefore, where not otherwise noted, the
term indicates members only of this specific community. The academic corpus
about the Mebengokr is vast, and it may be interesting to indicate that one of the
earliest texts about them was written by a priest: Pere Caron, Il domenicano degli
indios (Milano: Mondadori, 1973). Other texts of particular interest for an
ethnographic overview are Lux Vidal, O espao habitado entre os Kaiap-Xikrin
(J) e os Parakan (Tupi), do Mdio Tocantins, Par, in Habitaes indgenas, ed.
Sylvia Caiuby Novaes (So Paulo: Nobel, Edusp, 1983), 77-102; Isabelle Giannini,
A Ave Resgatada: A impossibilidade da leveza do Ser (Masters thesis,
Universidade de So Paulo, 1991); and Cesar Gordon, Economia selvagem. Ritual
e mercadoria entre os ndios Xikrin-Mebngkre (So Paulo-Rio de Janeiro:
Editora UNESP, NUTI, 2006), who have worked in the Catet Indigenous Area,
where a Mebengokr community lives with which the Bakaj lived together until
the 60s (a more complete presentation of the anthropological corpus about the
various Mebengokr can be encountered in Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione).

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

195

an educational policy by the Ministry of Education of the Brazilian

Government.15
Even though they had relations with the Gorotire, the Mebengokr to
whom I am referring in this paper had not experienced missionary
practices in their villages.16 As reported by Cohn, the entry of Protestant
Christianity into the village of Bakaj (the first of the Indigenous Area)
took place through the presence and the activities of a member of the Rio
Catet Mebengokr community, which had tried, without much success, to
organise weekly services.17 Already in 1993 this attempt was abandoned,
to be resuscitated in 1997 after the visit of a missionary, which caused a
great impression among the Xikrin because he was, as they said to me, an
old man with white hair who speaks their language very well and
understands so much of their culture.18 After this visit, four young men
began to attend a course in So Felix do Xingu. Cohn continues, saying
that from 1998 the religious services began to have a weekly status in the
village of Bakaj.19
During my first and second visits to the village of Mrtidjam in 2005
and 2006, however, I saw no worship in the months I spent with the
Mebengokr. The only time they told me anything regarding this question,
which was not a very common subject, they told me something of this
sort: we send priests away or here religious cannot enter. Comparing
those discourses with what was related by the author above, the entry of
Christianity through another Mebengokr man, I think this exemplifies a
specific method of defining such a meeting with an emphasis on the ability
to determine the forms and circumstances of the same. I will return to this
point later.

15

Cssio Noronha Inglez de Souza, Aprendendo a viver junto: reflexes sobre a

experincia escolar kayap-gorotire, in Antropologia, Histria e Educao, ed.
Aracy Lopes da Silva and Mariana Kawall Leal Ferreira (So Paulo:
Global/MARI-USP/FAPESP, 2001), 238-274.
16
For the recent history of the Trincheira Bakaj Indigenous Area, see Fisher,
Dualism and its discontent; Cohn, Relaes de Diferena no Brasil Central;
and Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione.
17
Clarice Cohn, ndios Missionrios: Cultos Protestantes Entre os Xicrin do
Bacaj, Campos 1 (2001): 11. She refers to him as Bep-komati, and he has a very
interesting trajectory to which I will return later.
18
Cohn, ndios Missionrios, 12.
19
There are now several villages in the Indigenous Area. The Mrtidjam village, to
which I am referring in this text, was built in 2005 (see Bollettin, Identit in
trasformazione).

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During the third visit, in 2008, I met a young man reading the Bible in
the Ngab, the Mens House,20 in front of his family and just a few other
young people. It was getting dark, it was late afternoon and Kapoto (this is
the name of the young man), dressed in a yellow shirt and blue shorts, was
reading without the aid of any amplification in the middle of the building.
Holding a translation of the New Testament in his hands,21 he was reading
slowly, enunciating his words almost without moving. Other participants
were seated in front of him, some on stools and some on the fence that
surrounds the Ngab. They listened silently, only interjecting at the points
when they had to repeat Amen or some other expression. Some of them
held pamphlets, which were reproductions of specific parts of the text;
others simply listened with their eyes fixed on the floor.
Sitting at a short distance away, in front of the house of an elder known
to be a valuable connoisseur of the culture (an interesting term to which
I will return later), I exchanged comments with him about what we were
watching. What do you think about it? I asked. Its a thing of his; his
family watches. Its a thing of youth, he replied, stretching himself as if
he had no great interest in the matter. The others in the village seemed to
confirm this feeling: all busy with their tasks, no one seemed to pay
attention to what was happening in the Ngab.
The situation seemed to be familiar to them, but I was extremely
curious about this novelty and decided to ask Kapoto if he was prepared to
tell me more about their adherence to Protestant Christianity. Initially he
looked at me curiously, as if this was not a subject of interest for an
anthropologist, and asked me why I wanted to know about it. I replied that
I was interested because he was reading very well and I wanted to know
what he thought about what he had just read. We therefore decided to talk
about it the following day.

20

The Mens House, located in the centre of the village, is a spatial point of
reference in Mebengokr social organisation (see Vidal, O espao habitado entre
os Kaiap-Xikrin [J] e os Parakan [Tupi]), so the fact he occupied this place is
an important element for understanding the realisation of that meeting.
21
I think it was the version of the New Testament translated into the Mebengokr
language by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Cohn (ndios Missionrios, 12)
tells of some audio tapes containing hymns. I have not found any of them in the
village of Mrtidjam, but it is possible that these instruments are present in some
other villages.

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197

The Various Religions of the Whites

The day after, we met in front of the pharmacy, the medicine
dispensary where I was staying during that visit to the village of
Mrtidjam. I was transcribing and translating some stories I had collected
and Socco, the Atendente Indgena de Sade of the village, was assisting
me. When Kapoto arrived, we interrupted our work and started to talk
about various issues, until Socco left, saying he needed to return to his
house. Kapoto and I stayed, sitting on the stools in front of the pharmacy,
in the shadows, watching the animated children who were playing in the
open area in front of us.
I entered directly into the topic: What do you think about what you
were reading yesterday?
It is the word of God; I learned it at the mission. There in So Felix.
When I was there, they taught me to read the book and they gave me one.
It is very important for me to read. He replied with conviction, and
continued: I learned from the missionaries it is the word of God, and now
I'm the pastor here.
Curious about the way he referred to himself, I asked him: Are you
the pastor? I do not understand.
I was chosen by the missionaries to read the word of God here in the
village because Im the one who can read best. It was hard; they tested us:
we had to memorise a lot of pages of the book, but I was able to do it. He
proudly explained how he demonstrated this ability that made him capable
of standing out in front of the missionaries: So they gave me the book to
read here.
But dont you think that its a thing of the whites?22 Why did you
want to have this role?
I get 150 R$ every month from the Mission to read the book. So I can
buy things for my family.
His pragmatic response made me curious, so I wanted to continue
asking about the matter: Do you think that what is written is true?

22

In the Mebengokr language, kuben is the term that defines the nonIndigenous. It is used in different ways depending on the context: sometimes it
refers only to non-Indigenous, other times it extends to also cover other Indigenous
groups. About this elasticity of the term and the existence of intermediary terms
such as kuben kakrit (quite white), see Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione.
In this case the term is being used to refer to the non-Indigenous; for this reason I
chose to translate it as white, as it is translated by the Mebengokr.

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Yes. The missionary taught us that it is the word of God; the book
was written by God, so it is true. Dont you know? He looked at me
curiously and it was his turn to ask me questions.
They say it is, but I do not agree. Books are written by people, I
think. My atheism came out in this way: There are several books written
by people that are presented as written by God.
This is not true! Dont you understand? God is one. He wrote the
book. Everybody knows it. Dont you know? Every white person knows it.
In the mission I learned that all the whites know the word of God.
I dont believe it. I was trying to respond to his attempt to
proselytise, but it seemed that this created more interest on his part to
continue.
Why you dont know? All the whites know!
Not all the white people believe in the same book and in the same
God! Many people wrote books, but I do not necessarily have to believe
they are the word of God.
But this is the book of God! You have to believe; otherwise you will
go to hell. His attitude was getting a little nervous, and as consequence I
began to feel embarrassed too, because I remembered many other
conversations about this topic with other people of faith who had tried to
convince me before.
But how can I be sure that this is the true book of God if there are
many other books that talk about different things and it is said they were
written by God? Whites have many religions; how can I choose which one
is true? I was trying to use the argument of relativism.
You dont understand; there is one God, and he wrote this book which
is his word. He was getting more nervous and suddenly rose to leave,
adding: Youre lying! There is only one God; there is no other!
When he stood up and angrily turned his back to me, I felt a great fear
that he might be angry with me. I tried to call him back but he did not
return. Soon Bep-eti, the benadjure, or chief of the village, appeared.
And he laughed to see me worried; he told me it was a young mans
thing. Still, I kept thinking about the dialogue that we had had that
afternoon; I was worried that I might have been too rigid in my views.
Early the next morning, to my great surprise, Kapoto appeared in the
pharmacy. So, I offered him a coffee and we sat down in front of the
pharmacy. After a few moments of silence, he asked me: You have said
that there are many religions of the whites. Which ones are they?
I dont know so well. I replied. But the whites are many different
peoples, as the Indians are different from each other. Every nation has a

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religion. There are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus; there are so many
religions.
But how can whites have many religions, if there is one God? I had
succeeded in arousing his curiosity.
Well, I think each one can assign a different name to God. As you
have the metumiaren,23 similarly white people, depending on where they
come from, have their own metumiaren, not always the same... I tried to
draw the speech in the direction of a dialogue between whites beliefs and
those of the Mebengokr. Do you believe the metumiaren?
Kapoto stayed in silence for a while and then he said: Yes, but only
the elders know metumiaren.
But then, if you believe the metumiaren you can see there are many
true stories, not only the Bible that the whites have given to you. Likewise
the whites too have many true stories. I continued.
Tell me those stories... His curiosity was now directed to learning the
multiple religions of whites, so I tried to describe a bit of some religions.
We talked the whole morning, until he invited me to have lunch at his
house and we changed the subject.
We did not return to the subject during that stay in Mrtidjam. Only
when we went down the river Bakaj by boat towards the city of Altamira,
near at the end of my stay there, did he tell me he was going to participate
in a Bible class24 in Imperatriz do Maranho. He was traveling with his
family, and explained to me that he was going to spend an entire year in
the city of Maranho.25

23

Metumiaren are literally tales of the elders, namely the set of stories, myths
and others narratives which contribute to forming Mebengokr knowledge about
the world.
24
This class is organised by the Centro de Treinamento Biblico Carlos Harrison, a
part of the Misso Evangelica aos ndios do Brasil. On their website, they present
their aims: To enable believers, men and women, for the work of evangelism and
the edification of the church; [] biblical and theological preparation for
strengthening the local church; [] missiological preparation for the expansion of
the kingdom of God among other ethnic groups. The justification of these aims
refers to specific verses: The great commission of Jesus was given to all his
followers. This means that even the Indians and backwoodsmen have the same
responsibility to evangelise the lost than any other Christian, (italics are mine)
cited as: 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Titus 2:1-3, Titus 1:7-9.
25
A few weeks later, he called me in Sao Paulo, where I was before returning to
Italy, and he told me he did not want to stay there and that he wanted to return to
the village, but later I discovered that he remained there for the whole duration of
the course.

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Learning to be a Missionary
In June 2011 I finally returned to the village of Mrtidjam to deliver a
copy of my doctoral dissertation to the Mebengokr. I presented the
dissertation in the House of Men during a general meeting where the
elders and the majority of the men met.26 I gradually introduced the
various parts of the work, the various matters that I had dealt with and the
way I had chosen to address them. Their reaction was very exciting
because it triggered discussions on several matters: the choice of subjects,
which more properly represented a question, finally pointed out many
topics and caught the attention of the participants.27
At the end of the night, Kapoto came up to me and told me he wanted
to show me something important. Therefore, we decided to meet the next
day. When I arrived at his house, which had changed and was now placed
slightly apart from the circle of other houses,28 he invited me in and he
shows me the certificate from the Bible course that he had attended.
He started telling me about his experience in the Bible Course.
At the beginning it was very difficult; I thought I would not be able to
stay there. We had many classes. Classes began at 7:30 in the morning and
continued until noon. Then I had lunch. In the afternoon we had classes
from 2 PM to 5 PM. After the classes we had things to do at home.
I asked him what the lessons were about, and he began to show me the
syllabus of the course of study: Devotional Life, Bible Study Method,
Knowing the Word of God, Discipleship, Portuguese, Chronological

26

Regarding the division of age classes among the Mebengokr, see Vidal, O
espao habitado entre os Kaiap-Xikrin (J) e os Parakan (Tupi), Fisher,
Dualism and its discontent, and Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione, among
the several works treating the matter. Cohn (ndios Missionrios) presents the
possibility that Protestantism is more of a way of affirming the opposition between
the age classes among the Mebengokr; this idea seems to be confirmed by the
tolerant and quite indifferent attitude of the elders in the face of these practices.
27
It is important to note that the photos contained in the dissertation were an
element of great interest; those photos became the central theme of the discussions.
Finally, the Mebengok asked me for another work: a photo book (which
unfortunately does not yet exist).
28
I later learned that this new building had been built to host a North American
missionary who spent some days there. I did not collect more information on the
matter, but they told me that he was expelled by FUNAI just a few days after his
arrival. I am not going to adress this issue here because I do not have sufficient
material to do so, but I think it is interesting to note that the current occupants of
the house are Kapoto and his family.

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

201

Studies, Biblical Narratives, Doctrine, Panorama of the Old Testament,

History of the Church, Christian House, etc.
After he had described the classes, Kapoto returned to comment on the
difficulties he encountered along that path: The course is very hard.
When I came here for holidays in the village, I wanted to give up but then
I decided to finish. I decided to stop only when I was here.
I asked him how the daily life in the Mission was, and he told me that
the Mission itself provided board and lodging to all the Indigenous and
their families. Then he added: Not all churches help us. We had to buy
two books; one, which came from Goiais, cost 180.00 R$, and the other,
which came from Manaus, 200.00 R$. I asked him where he had found
the money to buy these books, and he answered: The money was given to
me by some American believers29 who live here in Brazil. They helped
me.
What else did you do in the Mission, besides studying? I asked.
We went to visit the villages of other Amerindians. We travelled by
the Par and Maranho visiting many villages. This is the work of the
Missionary; he has to travel to several villages. I was chosen to be
Missionary to all Indians. He replied with great pride that he had been
chosen by the Mission to conduct this work.
What does it mean for you to be a Missionary? I asked.
That I have to travel to other villages. This is very good, he said,
with the Missionaries from the Mission and also traveling alone.
We then parted because it was lunchtime and he told me that in the
afternoon he was going to hold a function at the House of Men. Therefore,
I returned to the pharmacy for lunch and met another person, Kapotos
brother-in-law, and we started talking about various things, until he asked
me if I intended to participate in the function that afternoon.
I do not know. Why? Will you participate? I answered him with a
question.
Yes, I will.
Are you a believer?
Yes.
When did you get involved; you were not participating before...?

29

It is interesting to underline that the USA appears as a paradigm of a distant

place in various Mebengokr narrations. For example, in the myth of the origin of
dogs, it is said that they had gone to take them to the USA (see Bollettin, Identit
in trasformazione, 325 and following, where I address this issue in more detail).
This may explain the emphasis with which he remarked that the aid he had
received came from someone from the USA.

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He looked at me and started telling me a story: Once upon a time a

person was reading the Bible and another one told him: What are you
doing? Im reading, he answered. Throw away that book, it is
worthless! It is useful, it is important, it is the word of God. Its not
true! A few days later, this one looked for the first one but he was not
there anymore. He had risen to koikwa.30 It seems that God took him up
there and he will not return...
I asked him: Do you think thats true?
He replied to me with confidence: Yes, I think so. It is a true story.
Soon after, he went away to return to his home. I reflected on the
parallels between this story and some others I had heard before and that
were told to me by Karangr, one of the elders, generally recognised as
knowledgeable of metumiaren. In these stories, the sky often has a
determining role in the development of action. For example, from the sky
comes the woman who brings edible plants, or it is there that a character in
another myth hides to avoid vengeance, etc.31
In the afternoon, some young men of the village gathered to play
soccer in the field located next to the airstrip in Mrtidjam. As usually
happens in sporting events, the division of the teams followed a difference
in age: on the one team there were young men with one or no children, and
30

Literally: the roof of sky, the layer above this world, located in the sky. In
another narrative it is the place from where men in this world originate. For this
story and others I will quote, please refer to Vidal, O espao habitado entre os
Kaiap-Xikrin (J) e os Parakan (Tupi); Fisher, Dualism and its discontent;
Cohn, Relaes de Diferena no Brasil Central; and Bollettin, Identit in
trasformazione, among the various authors who have treated them. I find it
interesting, in this direction, to show Taussigs comment: the poetic echo of what
is said to have happened long ago in the time before history, additional evidence
for which is provided by striking features in the physical landscape, in the
mountains, reefs, and rocky outcrops in the ocean: Michael Taussig, What Color
is the Sacred? (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009), 102. To express this in
another way, the sky takes on the role of a marker of spatiality that links directly to
exceptional events that shape the everyday experience.
31
Similarities between these myths show a redefinition of the narrative formula
toward a legitimation of a situation experienced on a daily basis by the
Mebengokr. In this sense, it stands to reason to consider the words of Calvia
Sez, who claims that at most they are not myths in which one can infer a
cosmological constant, but a cosmology that produces, so to speak, a series of
myths: Oscar Calvia Sez, A variao mtica como reflexo, Revista de
Antropologia 45, no. 1 (2002): 13. That is, the use of a formula that shaped a
narrative style already recognised as effective presents a new situation in an
explanatory pattern that can put it in the context of local experience.

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

203

on the other team those who had two or more children. In this game, the
two groups wore T-shirts in different colours: green for the first and red
for the second. Among them was a referee. During my previous stays, I
had never encountered this presence. Curious, I asked the audience: Since
when is there a referee on the field?
Another young man who was waiting his turn to enter the game on the
team of young men with more than one child said: Kapoto is the referee
since he returned from the journey.
The referee was Kapoto. He followed the entire game, wearing a black
shirt and black shorts, the usual uniform for referees of football. I watched
the entire game with the public, commenting on the plays made, both good
and bad, amidst the laughter that always accompanies such events.
When the game ended (with the victory of the younger team), all the
participants gathered at the House of Men, where each one took his clothes
and gave his football uniform to two of them who took the clothes home
for their wives to wash. At this point, I approached Kapoto.
How is it to be the referee?
Its good. I always referee the games. He replied.
Who chose you to be the referee?
Everybody! He started to explain how he become the referee of
football matches. At the Mission it was explained to me that those who
work in the Mission cannot play football. Therefore, I do not play
anymore. Nevertheless, I was chosen to be the judge. As I do not play, I
was asked to be the judge.
Why you?
Because I do not play. So I can be the referee.
Shortly after, he was called by his son and we parted once more.
Some time later, in the afternoon, I decided to participate in the
function. This time, unlike the experience reported above, the
participation was much greater and the arrangements for holding the
meeting changed. In addition to Kapoto and his family, several other
community members were sitting along the benches of the House of Men.
In the middle stood another young man from Mrtidjam, reading a passage
from the Bible with a microphone connected to a speaker.
Kapoto was standing behind the other participants and approached me,
so I asked him if I could take some pictures. He pulled out his camera and
told me: Yes you can. Take some pictures with mine also when I talk...
I took his camera and thanked him for the permission. When the first
reader finished the prayer, he began to sing a religious song that all the
others joined in with. Kapoto went to the centre of the House of Men,
standing next to the other man. When the song ended, he took the

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microphone and began to read another passage from the Bible. Silence
returned among the participants, who listened to his words with their heads
bowed. Only a few children were playing, running along the outskirts of
the House of Men, while the rest of the community stayed in front of their
homes, occupied in other activities.
Kapoto went on reading for nearly half an hour, then sang another song
that all the participants sang as they had done with the previous one. When
they finished, Kapoto began to talk freely about various topics, from time
to time asking questions, to which the others responded with acclamations
of approval. When he finished his own speech, the others sang a song to
end the function.
The event was just ending when Bep-Komati came to me; he was the
boy who, according to Clarice Cohn, had introduced Protestant
Christianity to the Mebengokr of Bakaj.32 He came up to me to inform
me that at night we would have a meeting at the Mens House to discuss
the issue of Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.
I took advantage of the situation to ask him: Why dont you
participate in the function?
He answered quietly: I do not participate. Kapoto is the pastor.
But you believe in God?
Yes.
Who taught Kapoto?
I taught Kapoto, but now I no longer do. He is now the one who does
this.
Once he had told me that, he went away to return to his house. At the
same time, Kapoto came to ask me what I thought about the function.
It was interesting, I replied: I saw that the number of participants
has greatly increased since the last time I was here.
Yes, he said: In the Mission they told me to read for everyone. Did
you take pictures?
Kapoto was more interested in the photos that I had taken with the two
cameras, his and mine, so we looked at the pictures. He told me he wanted
to send the photos to the Mission to show them his work: The Mission
wants to see how I do my job.
I then showed the pictures I had taken during the football game: Do
you want these too?
Yes, so I can also show this.
Who bought the speaker?
I bought it with the money I received from the Mission.
32

See reference above.

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

205

And why are there some others who read before you?
Because Im no longer the pastor; now Im working as a
missionary...

The Ways of Faith

Kapotos story, summarised here, allows me to highlight interesting
aspects of local experience of this encounter between the Mebengokr and
the Mission. A first reflection comes from a suggestion already proposed
by Clarice Cohn in her text on the entry of Protestants into the village of
Bakaj. She says: the appreciation of the New Testament then binds to
the appreciation of the written word and literacy.33 This clearly appears in
the words of Kapoto when he explains that he was chosen to be the
pastor because of his proficiency in the Portuguese language and his
reading skills. This factor, certainly crucial for him to take the job, cannot
be seen as separate from the strategy of legitimation that he brings forward
as a privileged interlocutor with the whites.
In another text,34 I have analysed the introduction of the telephone to
the village of Mrtidjam, seeking to demonstrate how this functions as a
marker of individual differences. The use of the telephone legitimates the
one who uses it to propose himself as a subject carrying a particular
connection with the world outside the village. The only two people I have
seen using it are Kapoto, who communicates with the Mission, and Bepeti,
one of the villages benadjure, or leaders, who communicates with the
Fundao Nacional do ndio. Looking at this function of the telephone and
at the reading of Christian texts as parallels, I can say that the domain of
the written word, in the case of Kapoto, assumes the value of a
subjectivising and differentiating element. The two elements allow him to
make a claim to others on that particular link.
The doubts that I posed to them are directly linked to this question: if
the whites have more than one God, more than one religion, this
multiplicity must enter into the process of appropriation. Kapoto, as I have
said, uses religion as an instrument of affirmation and individualisation,
but how does this process take place? An interesting element that allows
me to elucidate this question is given by the notion of kukradja, a set of
tangible and intangible elements that contribute to defining who is who.
Some aspects of this set need further consideration: the fact that they
transfer from the outside, the need to maintain them as scarce goods, and
33
34

Cohn, ndios Missionrios, 13.

Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione, 249-252.

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the continuous replacement of items.35 It follows that if Kapoto appropriates

religion to add it to his own set of kukradja, the existence of more than one
religion of whites implies the need for him to seek knowledge about
alternative possibilities as well. Therefore, it clearly appears how his
attitude at the discovery of this multiplicity and subsequently his curiosity
to know it would make him determined to try to use it too as a subjective
prestige element within the community.
A consequence of this is that, if religion is considered from a local
point of view, what is important is not with what it is transmitted, but
rather the appropriation of knowledge about the world of whites through
this instrument. In other words, the fact that Kapoto came to ask me about
the many religions of whites suggests that he was not interested in moral
content, but in the possibility of obtaining new knowledge that would
enable him to acquire one more card to play in the local political game. It
does not mean that such content is not crucial to his claim, as is clearly
demonstrated by the fact that he assumed the role of referee in football: he
uses the prohibition arising from a teaching he learned in the Mission in
order to achieve a leading role in such games. The ban on playing games
becomes an instrument to take on a unique function.
Another element, directly connected with the last, that I find interesting
to highlight consists of the motives he gives to explain the reasons that led
him to choose to become a missionary instead of a pastor. The main
motivation seems to be the possibility of travel. Once again, we can draw a
parallel with Bep-eti. In 2006, during a conversation we had on relations
between the Mebengokr of Bakaj and others Mebengokr-Kayap
groups, he told me of his intention to spend some time in another
Indigenous Area (which has not actually happened as of today), to be
able to learn with my relatives. He put so much emphasis on its purpose;
he added the fact that he had relatives living in these villages, that he had
travelled to still other villages and that he used to travel between villages.
This discourse demonstrates the fact that the possibility of travelling is
presented as a crucial element for acquiring legitimacy in the eyes of the
community for the strategic role of mediation between inside and outside.
In this sense, travel and Kapotos permanence in the Mission and in the
other villages can be seen from the viewpoint of a strategy of acquiring
new knowledge from the outside world, but also as a tool to obtain the
prestige connected with the idea of travelling. The fact that he explicitly
35

Bollettin, Identit in trasformazione, 261-270. See also Vanessa Lea, Nomes

e nekrets Kayapo: uma concepcao de riqueza (PhD diss., Universidade Federal
do Rio de Janeiro, 1986); Fisher, Dualism and its discontent; Cohn, Relaes de
Diferena no Brasil Central; Gordon, Economia selvagem.

Indian Missionary or Pastor?

207

declared this when I asked him what it means to be a missionary clearly

demonstrates the distinguishing value of his new job. The passage from
minister to missionary is configured as a possibility of opening a
universe of new partners, both for the possible acquisition of new
kukradja, and to have been elected as a mediator with the outside world,
both the Indigenous and the white.
The discussion we had that I have reported above about the many
religions of whites has the same purpose. I affirm my foreignness to
Christianity; he feels a loss of power over his own legitimation strategy.
After all, if not all whites are believers in God, then the belief itself cannot
be seen as carrying a specificity. The solution he found, therefore, was to
seek other religions, to know alternative possibilities in order to reaffirm
his own legitimacy as a carrier of the knowledge of whites. Wondering
about other religious forms, he was not abdicating from his own
specificity, to be the legitimate connoisseur of the world of whites, but
was extending and strengthening this strategy.
I do not feel able, because my research has not been systematic, to
judge if Kapoto and the other participants really accepted the Protestant
rhetoric. Cohn says the Protestant religion may be regarded as a definitive
solution to an ambiguous situation.36 That is, Protestantism offers the
solution to the final separation between the living and the dead that is not
present in Mebengokr cosmology. Nevertheless, this is not what I aim to
discuss here. What interests me is not to show whether the Mebengokr, or
some of them, turned into Protestant Christians, but to highlight the ways
in which Kapoto explains his own experience and how this is interpreted
by others. The narrative of the young man who read the Bible and rose to
heaven, the fact that the services take place in the House of Men, and the
reaction of indifference by the elders indicate the importance of looking at
these Protestant practices as an appreciation of novelty from outside within
an internal policy of the community. When Bep-Komati explains that he
no longer participates in the functions, he is claiming that his own political
strategy has changed. He now competes for prestige in other ways, for
example by being the only one who drives a car, or mediating with
Fundao Nacional do ndio in the matters related to the construction of
the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam. For this reason, he no longer needs to
be recognised as a carrier of Protestantism. Although he still says he is a
Christian, the claim that the position of minister is no longer under his
jurisdiction indicates the possibility of entering and exiting such a
situation, depending upon whether someone needs it or not. At the same
36

Cohn, ndios Missionrios, 20.

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time, it could also be said that to be Protestant is a temporary condition,

since this is not the first time they experience this possibility. This is
another sign, in my view, which shows how this possibility has to be seen
from a local point of view that resemanticised the experience, using it for
finalities of specific sites. Obviously these few reflections could address
other important issues and could involve other agents. Still, I think that
through dialogues we participated in and moments we experiencedit is
possible to see the entry of Protestantism among the Mebengokr of
Bakaj not as a linear path, but as a journey always reworked,
reinterpreted and re-signified by the agents involved.

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