Between Mission, Myths and Tradition. The Production of Texts by and about the Macuxi in Contemporary Brazil

This text examines the production of the collection Makuxi Panton - Historias Makuxi published by Consolata missionaries in Roraima, Brazil, in the late 1980s. The aim is to understand how missionary choices in favour of some concepts made it possible to develop a model of missionary action based on what they called the 'commitment to the cause of indigenous peoples.' Such 'commitment' aimed at preserving 'indigenous culture', demarcating indigenous lands, and securing rights considered to be fundamental. The concept of 'culture' - which supposedly both established a dialogue with anthropology, the discipline considered to be authorized to describe 'cultures', and was incorporated into theological discourse - is the main concept analyzed. The resulting new model of action for building relations between missionaries and indigenous people will also be discussed. Emphasis will be given to the production of shared codes by the agents of the missionary encounter. In this encounter, the code 'culture' guides a number of practices related in particular to issues concerning ethnic identity and land rights claims.