Epistemic Disobedience and (Des)Colonization of the Imaginary in the "Myth of the Golden Chapel"

Abstract

The Catholic Church, by propagating the Christian faith and the conversion of the indigenous and riverine populations of the Amazon region, (re)produced its ideologies in the form of writings, which are also present in oral narratives. In this article, whose theoretical contribution is linked to Post-colonial studies and Decolonial thought, based on the articulation of the differences between the real and the imaginary, salvation and sin, we wish to answer the following question: what ideological formation and forms of to educate would be connected the "Myth of the Golden Chapel", in the region of the middle Amazonas of Pará? For this purpose, in this research based on bibliographical and documentary sources, journals of travels of missionaries to the Amazonic region, especially the region of the Trombetas river, printed and manuscripts published by churches and by the National Council of Protection to the Indian (CNPI) were investigated in the century XX. The data indicate that the "Golden Chapel Myth" stems from an attempt to colonize the imaginary of native populations in the region, given that the supernatural christian world was completely opposed to the supernatural, indigenous and riverine world, related in that context to demonization.

Keywords: Post-colonialism. Mythology Amazonian. Myth of the Golden Chapel.