Between Distraction and Forgetting: the colonization of the Brazil-Guyana fronteir in historical and mythical readings

Abstract:

In Absent-minded Imperialism, the anthropologist Peter Rivière retraces the Pirara litigation that defined the border between Brazil and former British Guiana. In contrast to the English colonizers’ perceptions in the primary sources privileged by the author, this article examines Kapon and Pemon understandings of aspects of the colonization which also informed specific episodes in the litigation process. These Indigenous readings are inherent to mythic narratives about the origin of the Areruya religion, itself a crystallization of ancient Kapon and Pemon prophetic movements. Many of these were led by shamans who had intermittent contact with Christian missionaries. However, contemporary Areruya followers do not acknowledge missionary influence over their religion. My reflection on this perception takes into account that which related mythic narratives both preserve and discard from the history of contact between pioneering prophets and missionaries. Finally, I suggest that the more mythified narrative has greater consistency with Areruya’s current conceptual system and the place of colonization in it.

Keywords:
Kapon and Pemon; British Guiana’s colonization; Prophetic movements; Myth and History; Christianity in Amazonia