Amerindians of South America

The Amerindians are the original peoples of the South American continent, who from the time of the first European invasion 500 years ago and the continuous settlement since, have had their populations decimated by a combination of warfare and disease. More than 20 million Amerindians have died — a figure equal to that of the original pre-European population. Amerindians are found throughout South America; they are not a homogenous group and are divided into many peoples — increasingly referred to as “nations”. The two major divisions are between those of the Andean highlands and of the tropical lowlands which contain the Amazon and Orinoco River basins. The rights of indigenous people centre on the principle of self-determination and especially land rights.

History

The first Amerindians crossed the frozen Bering Straits about 30,000 years ago and between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago began to spread throughout the highlands and lowlands of South America. Agricultural settlements began to appear around 5,000 years ago. The most famous quasi-state organization — there were several — was the Quichua-speaking Incas who held power between present-day Equador in the north and northern Chile and Argentina in the south. The continent contained a broad spectrum of socio-economic and cultural patterns.
Soon after Colombus’ arrival on American soil, Spain and Portugal had agreed to divide the uncharted world amongst themselves. The colonists were eager to exploit trade in wood and sugar, which soon brought them into conflict with the indigenous peoples. Labour shortages caused colonists to seek indigenous slaves which produced resistance in the form of hostilities that lasted throughout the century. To complicate matters, French and Dutch interests in the continent fought Portuguese hegemony — and exploited Indian resistance to their own ends. Meanwhile Jesuit missionaries tried to bring Indians intoreducions, where they were killed in their hundreds of thousands by diseases such as dysentry, influenza and smallpox. Settlers looking for more land were also responsible for countless deaths among Amerindians. On the Pacific coast, the Spanish did not bother setting up trading relations, but proceeded to milk the Andean area for minerals.
By 1750 the continent was under Iberian rule, although many areas defied the invaders. Portugal expelled the Jesuits in 1759 and Spain followed nine years later. The French Bourbon dynasty, which had control of the Spanish throne began to liberalize practices in Peru, mainly as a means of combating British interests in the area. However, Britain eventually gained economic predominance in South America, Andean Indian resistance in Quichua and Aymara, though solidly backed, was put down. Even today several

http://www.faqs.org/minorities/South-and-Central-America/Amerindians-of-South-America.html

Stephen Campbell

Campbell was born in the Moruca sub-district of Region One on December 26, 1819 to parents who both died when he was at a tender age, leaving him in the care of his grandmother. He was a student of the Santa Rosa Mission School and was someone who had a passion for learning in his early life and this influenced his character as a person with a discovery method. 

Campbell married at the age of 31 in 1928 and migrated to various locations in Regions One, Two, Seven and Nine where he was involved in teaching, road construction, gold mining, rubber tapping, fishing and tree spotting. 

His political will, however, was aroused during his tenure at the Waini sawmill where Amerindians and other sections of the Guyanese population were seeking representation. 

With the proposal of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1951, this gave the Amerindians the opportunity to participate in General Elections as Campbell began to show keener interest in politics. 

April 27, 1956 marked the first time in history that Amerindians in Guyana exercised their franchise and the following year, Campbell at the age of 60 was first elected to the Legislative Council of British Guiana. 

He subsequently entered the National Labour Front (NLF) and became the first Amerindian to contest the General Elections in British Guiana. 

This historical event was the turning point in Stephen Campbell’s personal life which was influenced by a sense of duty towards the Amerindian people. 

“In the year 1957, I he entered politics at the request of the Amerindians who felt that they had no one to represent their interests in the Central Government,” Campbell had said. 

Among his greatest achievements was the move towards crafting the Amerindian Act and to develop better health facilities, a postal service and agriculture in the North West District. 

Campbell died on May 12, 1966 two weeks before Guiana gained Independence from Britain. 

Tribute is paid to him in acknowledgement for his contributions of being a renowned advocate for Amerindian rights and representation (Stephen Campbell,) the first Amerindian to enter the Legislative Council of then British Guiana. His achievements and vision for the advancement of Amerindians earned him a place in the history of the country.  We need more Amerindians like him.!!!

How one elaborates a Christian Amerindian Theology.

The starting point is to get rid of the prejudices on both sides. The part of the indigenous peoples, cannot be born of hatred or condemnation and repudiation of 500 years of forced evangelization because, previously, they had their theology, their expression. Their contact with God is part of the past, and now they have to live the present and look with hope for the future as a people who were "reduced, but not defeated." 


The challenge now is to show that with the new evangelization, it is possible to overcome the intolerance of the first evangelization, that of colonization that has prevailed against the indigenous religious cultures. Another condition is, on the other hand, not wanting to restrict the manifestation of God to a culture - the West - or limit it to the gateway to God, but accept that each nation can commune and relate to him in their own way.

Amerindian Religion creates a more practical theology, that is, the fruit of experience which is reflected in myths and rituals, work and social life of a people, justified, much more than Western culture, reciprocity and sharing in the relationship with gratuity to God. (He gives, He takes) and with others (no one is abandoned when in need even when they don’t deserve it).

Finally, Amerindian Theology still has a long way to find a formulation that is Christian, that collects and purifies all the contributions of the religious experience of indigenous peoples which make it a reflection of  their faith. However, it is nevertheless time to recognize their legitimacy, cultural identity, and experience of God to redeem the great values contained in Amerindian Peoples religious cultures which bring richness to the Catholic Church and even contributes to other Theologies. 

Medino Abraham

Santa Rosa

Moruca

Theology and Cultures.

Theology (discourse about God) is the understanding and experience of God that takes place within history and culture of each nation. The Bible gives examples of inculturation, especially in the early Church, when it was confronted with different Hebrew cultures where it set aside the Jews´ fundamental faith practices such as circumcision and the conceptance of legal purity. In so doing various nations were converted to Christianity, taking with them their native languages and traditions to the church. In such way it should be today for Christianity when it inculturates with people who has different tradition, values, and who has a belief enough for them to practice. These beliefs are those that form the wealth of mankind, but for the Amerindians many of them superficially labeled as superstition and paganism, were destroyed during the colonial occupation. Today, as we rediscover these religious and cultural traditions in Indigenous peoples, we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past, when evangelization was often confused with westernization.

It became unacceptable to African people, Asian and the natives of the Americas who had to renounce their cultural roots if they wanted to be Christians. Catholic priest and a Zapotec Indian, Eleazar Lopes, describes the complexity and made an appeal: "We, the indigenous religious, we are internally divided by two loves: we love our people and believe in their culture, and at the time we also love the Church and believed in its plan of salvation.”

“We believe that it’s possible and worthwhile to reconcile the division because we know that there is no insurmountable contradiction between the key proposals of the Church, which are the same Christ, and the theological presuppositions of our people ... the differences are only in the form of praising the Divine, while the vision is the same to  the one God . Moreover, most of these examples are best expressed in the culture of our people by the simple purity of heart and in that sense, we believe that the theological dialogue will revert the benefit not only for indigenous peoples, but will be enriching for the Church, in which through Amerindians it will be reunited with the purest of the Gospel message and Christian tradition” " (Lopes Eleazar, 1992). 

Reflection about Amerindian Theology in Latin America

Discovery of Amerindian Theology.

In tribute to Amerindian Heritage Month i thought to share this reflection on Amerindian Theology from a Latin American church perspective, which the Amerindians of Guyana identifies with it  in some way or the other, through history.

Doing theology is to speak, to express to communicate the experience of God from one´s life, and from one's culture. Amerindian Theology must express this experience with the belief in culture which is, through its myths and rituals etc. Amerindian Theology is a reality as old as much as indigenous peoples, but only recently it began to recognize its diversity of cultures, its components of groups and individuals discovered by Christian churches.

Until a few years ago, the evangelization of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and other continents was an imposition of Western culture from the Greek-Roman world, formulated by European Theologians over many centuries. These Theologies suffocated the fundamental values and traditions of indigenous peoples; it made them be converted and at the same time displaced them from their historical and cultural context. In general, it denied that indigenous religious cultures can contribute to the understanding of the Christian God, nature, and relationship to man.

Today with the principle of Inculturation and still with a lot of suspicion and distrust, it became easier to accept indigenous beliefs which began to be considered in the Theological world, precisely, because one begins to understand that God is not only the God of Western culture, and there is not one way that God can reveal himself, but through diverse ways to man.

The Church therefore being a representative of God's mission to the world, is called upon to respect the values of Indigenous belief about the divine and highlight the positive points in them logically. On the path of inculturation,  Amerindian Theology should not be created outside the context of indigenous culture and then be imposed, but rather it should be discovered and nurtured in the context of the people and their cultures promoting them in one voice to give thanks to the Lord”(Dom Geraldo Flores, Guatemala, 1996). 

Digital Religious Ed in Brazil attracts youths to church

In place of the traditional blackboard, a Liquid Crystal Diode (LCD) screen. Instead of pencils and notebook is the computer. Besides the traditional Catholic hymns and bible study, students of religious education of Holy Spirit Parish in Cruz Alta, in Brazil’s Northern State watch videos on YouTube, do research on the Internet and post them in a blog, best described as digital catechesis.The idea came from Father Edson Menegazzi, who uses the Internet as a way of attracting young people to church. They already use the internet to research other topics. Why not do the same with religion, said the priest.Since the design of digital catechesis began to be published at Mass, the number of students from pre-Communion classes rose from 14 to 103. According to the priest, working with the use of computer does not replace the conventional catechism, rather it complements it.
The project was tried last year with a classroom experiment. This year the goal is to reach 200 young people. In the blog created especially for catechism, the priest put texts for reflection, which are open to feedback from students. The course comprises 10 encounters: two presences, the first and last - and the rest by the Internet. For those who do not have access to the internet at home, a semi laboratory space was set in the church´s parish hall. Funds to purchase the computers and to pay for access to the Internet are obtained through donations.When I asked one of the students, 12 year old William Mate of Shechem, who participated in catechesis digital last year what he thought of the project, he fully endorsed the idea. “We are in changing times and evangelization also comes through the internet.” He does not have internet access at home and uses the church.Since 2008, the priest has made use of technology to attract and engage the youths of the parish. Before the project in Cruz Alta, he had already introduced it in the parish of Our Lady of the Nativity, in the neighboring district of Hamburg. An internet site was created in which the faithful could access and check out the schedule of mass, see the schedule daily parish activities and communicate with the priest via-email, and even listen to devotional music provided by radio on the internet.

From Medino Abraham

Medino Abraham met Brazil´s Mother Theresa..

Brazil's 'Mother Theresa' Killed in Quake

Guyanese Jesuit Medino Abraham SJ pays tribute to Zilda Arns Neumann, a woman described as Brazil's Mother Theresa.  Medino met Dr Arns last year while he was engaged in pastoral works with children in South Brazil; she was killed in the Haiti earthquake three weeks ago. 

A pioneer in children's health care, Zilda Arns Neumann created a sprawling network of volunteers who monitor the health of millions of children in Brazil and 20 other nations.  She died in the Haiti earthquake while on a mission to support local volunteers for the organization she founded, Pastoral da Criança, or the Child's Pastoral.  She was 75.

Dona Zilda, as she became known throughout Brazil, founded Pastoral da Criança in 1983 in southern Brazil at the behest of her brother, Paulo Evaristo Arns, who at the time was Cardinal of São Paolo.  The organization has grown to include 260,000 volunteers, who teach mothers the importance of breastfeeding, monitor vaccinations, and distribute a recipe for home-made oral rehydration salts that Dr Arns devised.  At a festive 'Day of Celebration,' held every month, children from the community come together to be weighed.

The programme costs about $1 per month per child and has cut child mortality in half in the communities in which it operates, Pastoral da Criança says.  The Brazilian government twice nominated Dr Arns for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Originally a joint venture between the Roman Catholic Church and the United Nations Children's Fund, Pastoral da Criança grew from a small program in rural southern Brazil to encompass more than two-thirds of the municipalities in the country.  Today it is largely supported by the Brazilian government but run through the Catholic Church.

Dr Arns was a devout Catholic who kept a photograph of herself and Pope John Paul II on her office wall.  She often said the model for her work was the New Testament story in which Jesus fed a multitude with only a few loaves and fishes.  The parable, she said, inspired her to work with a decentralized organization and volunteers.

One of 13 children of German immigrants in rural southern Brazil, Dr Arns's mother served as an informal rural medic in Forquilhinha, the small town where the family lived.  Dr Arns attended medical school, and beginning in 1959 worked as a paediatrician in Curitiba, Brazil.  Her sensitivity to society's most vulnerable members was heightened by the tragedies in her own life.  She lost two of her children, and her husband was killed trying to rescue another child from drowning.

In a speech to the Port-au-Prince gathering of Pastoral da Criança volunteers shortly before her death, Dr Arns recalled the moment that her brother, the Cardinal, asked her to start a children's health outreach. 'I felt happy with the challenge,' she said. 'I felt that God, in a certain way, had prepared me for this mission.'

'Like the birds that take care of their children by building a nest high up in the trees and the mountains, far from predators' threats and dangers and nearer God, we should watch over our children as something sacred, promote and respect their rights and protect them.' In a statement, her brother said that Dr Arns 'died in the cause she has always believed'.

This is an edited version of an article that was first published in Guyana's Catholic Standard.

http://www.jesuit.org.uk/latest/100208.htm