An Unstable “Religion”
The Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion February 19, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/9780191822285.003.0010
Summary
The chapter discusses how Indigenous ritual practices in Amazonia were not initially recognized as religious by early Europeans. It highlights the recognition of shamanism as a local religion only in the nineteenth century, influenced by anthropology and the concept of animism. The analysis contrasts shamanism with classical animism and examines the impacts of conversion to Christianity and the objectification of culture by missionaries.
Study at a glance
| Population | Indigenous peoples of Amazonia |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Shamanism began to be recognized as a local religion in the nineteenth century, influenced by anthropological perspectives. |
Abstract
Abstract It is known that the first Europeans to arrive in Amazonia did not recognize Indigenous ritual practices as religious. Only in the nineteenth century, with the advent of anthropology, especially with the Taylorian conceptualization of animism, did shamanism, a practice associated with this ontology and widespread in the Amazonian world, begin to be recognized in the literature as constituting local religion. The chapter deals with shamanism and especially the “perspectivism” related to it, analyzing it in counterpoint to the classical notion of animism. In its conclusion, it explores the modes and effects of the conversion of these perspectivist peoples to Christianity and to an objectified notion of “culture,” often brought by the missionaries themselves.