Resumen

PRANDI, Reginaldo. Converting individuals, changing cultures. Tempo soc. [online]. 2008, vol.20, n.2, pp. 155-172. ISSN 0103-2070.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-20702008000200008.

Different religions conceive and treat their target public - their followers, old and new - in distinct ways. This text analyzes some of the relations established by different religious currents with cultures and individuals in Latin America, especially Brazil. Contemporary religions have diverging interpretations of what culture is - definitions which help shape their strategies for conversion and their responses to the advance of rival religions. For the purposes of debate, the article hypothesizes a not too distant future in which the majority of Latin America's population is Evangelical and asks what would happen to the supposedly Catholic Latin America culture if this supremacy were indeed to become a reality.

Palabras llave : Religion and Culture; Religious Conversion; Religions in Latin America; Catholicism; Evangelicalism; Afro-Brazilian Religions.