Abstract
This chapter uses Anthony F. C. Wallace’s framework for cultural transformation (1956) to assess the Alleluia movement among the Akawaio in Guyana. After years of missionary presence, many syncretic and prophetic movements emerged in the region. Some disappeared, while others adapted, grew, and consolidated power. Alleluia, based in Amokokupai Village, is the most prolific and well-documented culture to reimagine itself in this landscape by synthesizing traditional beliefs and practices with introduced Christian concepts. The movement was documented and analyzed by several authors, but never as a revitalization movement that follows a similar narrative path that Wallace describes for cultural transformation: steady state, stress, distortion, revitalization, and a new steady state. The chapter describes each of these phases using a spiritual geographical approach that enables an analysis of Alleluia as it relates to its highland location in the Pakaraima Mountains that transcend Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela. In order to provide historical and conceptual context, additional sections discuss the physical and human geography of Guyana, the traditional Akawaio spiritual ontology, and the colonial and missionary legacies. Ultimately, what distinguishes Alleluia is its highland geography that plays a central role in its cosmogenesis. This specificity creates a basis for comparison with other highland revitalization movements that share the unique quality of elevation.
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Notes
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- 2.
Wallace’s fourth phase of cultural transformation uses the word “distortion.” This suggests that the new cultural form is somehow misshapen from the original, correct form. In order to avoid essentializing certain cultural norms, “distortion” is replaced by the more accurate and less value-laden word “change.”.
- 3.
Since the headquarters of the Alleluia Church is in Amokokupai Village in the Pakaraima Mountains where a majority of the residents are Akawaio, this section focuses specifically on their traditional shamanic conceptual system.
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Cooper, D.G. (2020). Alleluia and the Akawaio: The Spiritual Geography of a Highland Revitalization Movement. In: Leal Filho, W., King, V., Borges de Lima, I. (eds) Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2_10
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