Dreaming faith into being: Relations of reciprocity among Indigenous Yine Christians

• In Event: Obliged by Powerful Others: Reciprocity and Obligation in Indigenous South-America

Abstract

Among the Indigenous Evangelical and Pentecostal Yine people living in the South-Eastern Peruvian Amazonia, dreams are one of the most important means of communicating with God and other non-human entities of the Christian cosmology. On the one hand, dreaming about God, Jesus or the angels is considered a proof of one’s faith – the unbelievers do not usually have such dreams. On the other hand, having these dreams does not automatically follow from the alleged faith. The dreams may be ’misinterpreted’ or interpreted differently; instead of being mere signs, they may be understood to involve relations of reciprocity; and telling about them may be motivated more by the human social life rather than the relation with God. Furthermore, there is always the danger of the dreams being caused by the Devil, and not by God. This paper examines Evangelical and Pentecostal Yine people’s dreams from the point of view of reciprocity and obligation both in the human to divine relations as well as in the more mundane social setting, in human to human relations. In what ways are relations of reciprocity part of the process of dreaming and telling about the dreams? How is communication with the divine through dreams considered to oblige people in regard to their faith and social relations? And finally, what roles do dreams and dreaming play in coping with the transformations taking place in the religious field?

Author

• Minna Opas, University of Turku