História e utopia na Terra Indígena Ligeiro: a presença da Igreja Católica entre os Kaingang na região norte do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to build an analysis on the missionary action developed by the Catholic Church with the Kaingang people, since its origins, more than 160 years ago. This way, we intend to collaborate in the construction of a new way of missionary action to the indigenous people. This dissertation integrates the effort of building a missionary action which stands out by the announcement and testimony of the Gospels, allied to the commitment to the indigenous cause. For that purpose, we studied the main aspects of the Kaingang culture, based on the anthropological literature, having the origin myth as reference. From the information obtained in the anthropological literature, we looked at the indigenous land Ligeiro, aiming to comprehend its historical trajectory and the current reality. We analyzed the contact of the Kaingang people with the Catholic Church missionaries based on several missionary activities developed around three forms or experiences of Catholicism: missionary, popular and institutional. Those forms or experiences of Catholicism which were practiced with the Kaingang communities have provoked profound alterations in their cultural and religious universe, but they kept on being Kaingang. Thus, we have analyzed the current expressions of the Kaingang culture and the significant elements that are kept, also indicating the challenge of realizing a missionary action based on the ethics of respect