Topa e a tentativa missionária de inserir o Deus cristão ao contexto Maxakali: análise do contato inter-religioso entre missionários cristãos e índios

Abstract

In this master’s dissertation, I analyze the pro inter-religious contact heard by acts of evangelic missions (SIL and MNTB) on the Maxakali Indian at the northeast of Minas Gerais. Besides of studying the proselytizes activities of this institutions among the Maxakali Indians, we have the goal to understand how the Indians started to associate Topa (the Indian character) as the Christian God during this inter-religious contact. In the Maxakali biography, Topa come as the central character of the “creation myth” of the group an despite of the fact that some authors recognize Topa as the Christian God in their works, that are no analysis about it. So the challenge here is to understand how Topa was used in so many ways during the contact between the Maxakali and the evangelic missionaries; and analyze the process the made possible this character to be gradually associated with the Christian God. Hence, the purpose of this research is to realize the missionary effort to introduce the Christian God in the Maxakali context through Topa. From the analysis of the Maxakali myths an evangelic religions songs translated to their idiom, we will try understand the association process, and also how (in)adequate were the Christian teaching to the Maxakali religious and social-cultural standards.