La voz de Dios y la respuesta awajún. El caso de la Iglesia Bíblica Awajún en el Alto Marañón (Amazonía peruana)

• Main Author: Silvia Romio
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Institut Français d'Études Andines 2018-12-01
• Series: Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines
• Subjects: Amazonía; Awajún; Upper Marañón; Autonomus Awajún Church; evangelical conversion; Thomas Dati
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/bifea/10148

Among many groups in the Peruvian Amazon, the messianic speech promoted by a preacher leader achieves some success. In contrast, among the Awajún of the Upper Marañón this type of leadership does not receive particular attention. However, it has not always been this way. There was a time, between the ‘70s and’ 80s, when the expectation of becoming “religious leader” attracted a good number of young people, who let themselves be guided by Thomas Dati, a Awajún pastor who was the founder of the first instance of Autonomous Awajún Church in the province of Imaza (Amazonas region). This religion, the result of syncretism between the Awajún cultural perspective and the evangelical message, was able to attract a large number of followers in a short period of time. Who was this preacher and what kind of message was he spreading? What were the reasons for his success and for his fall? In this article, thanks to ethnohistoric work brings together written sources with oral memories, we recreate some of the main aspects of this forceful experience as well examining the legacy that he left within the local cultural reality.