In those contexts where Indian militias are discussed, their role is generally treated as cursory, or in the case of Mexican nationalist narratives, as an utter betrayal of Amerindian self determination. As such, the legitimate Amerindian role in the conquest of the New World empires has entered the fray, and this in large part is due to the academy’s failure to consider more fully the role of Indian militias and allies, or indios amigos. The Neo-Indians will be of great interest to ethnographers, anthropologists, and scholars of Latin American history, religion, and cultural studies.ĭespite centuries of scholarship regarding Amerindian warfare, both academic and public narratives that address the European conquest of the Americas privilege the absolute and total conquest and subjugation of the American Indian. They examine the use of public space, describe the neo-Indian ceremonies, provide analysis of the ceremonies' symbolism, and explore the close relationship between the neo-Indian religion and tourism. Galinier and Molinié present and analyze four decades of ethnographic research focusing on Mexico and Peru, the two major areas of the movement's genesis.
As a result of this part-time status, the neo-Indians are often overlooked as a subject of study, making this book the first anthropological analysis of the movement. In their daily lives, they are average members of modern society, dressing in Western clothing, working at middle-class jobs, and retaining their traditional religious identities. Both indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners assume Indian identities only when deemed spiritually significant.
The Neo-Indians is a rich ethnographic study of the emergence of the neo-Indian movement-a new form of Indian identity based on largely reinvented pre-colonial cultures and comprising a diverse group of people attempting to re-create purified pre-colonial indigenous beliefs and ritual practices without the contaminating influences of modern society.
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