Religion in the Andes

With respect to the historical record of the religion of the people of that time and region, the author wants to show that what we know of that religion comes to us primarily from the European Christians who saw the Andean religious beliefs and practices as not worthy of the term "religious." Clearly, in order to morally justify their Christianization of the Andeans, the Europeans first had to believe---or at least pretend to believe---that the religion of the Andeans was inferior to Christianity. And this is precisely what they did.

Even more specifically, the author points out that we cannot trust the accounts of the Christianizing Europoeans with respect to the details and nature of Andean religion. Because they wanted to denigrate and discount the worth of Andean religious beliefs and practices, the Europeans were wont to distort those beliefs and practices in order to show their purported inferiority to Christian beliefs and practices.

To correct these deliberate errors and distortions, the author goes to other sources which more accurately and fairly describe Andean religion. Even this noble goal, however, has its pitfal

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" (x). The book lives up the author's promises. He places his concern for these people, their culture and their future at the center of his study. The intrusion of the modern world he sees as inevitable and ultimately tragic for them and their society: Sooner or later---it is difficult to say precisely when---a vehicular road, bouncing with sputtering government and commercial pickup trucks, will be built. It will link the Awa . . . to the larger towns along the Highlands Highway. When that day comes, the Awa will have to live with one less metaphor and one less dream (2). The text is salted with the words of the people themselves, and most of those quotations include the idiom of the group as well as social references which illuminate the essential elements---such as kinship patterns and their significance, and political leadership---of the culture: "'That's Api,' Ila said. 'He is my kandere, a relative on my mother's side. He is the number one Big Man (traditional political leader) of the village'" (21). The author shows that only one generation since the coming of the modern world has created stark differences among the people exposed and not exposed to that world: Only one generation separated Ila and Api, but while I
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3745
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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