TRANS · núm. 12 · 2008 este artículo estudia las marcas de catolicismo encontradas en DoSSieR · 67-79 la traducción de textos religiosos por el misionero jesuita José de Anchieta (1534-1597) en Brasil durante el siglo xvi. el estudio muestra cómo Anchieta empleó en sus traducciones términos del mundo espiritual de los indios Tupi como «equivalentes» de terminos cristianos para evangelizar pero no buscó entender su significado profundo. Se establece un paralelismo entre la voluntad de Anchieta de mezclar términos cristianos con conceptos del mundo espiritual de los indios brasileños, y la «equivalencia dinámica» de eugene Nida así como los conceptos de «naturalización» y «extranjerización» de Lawrence Venuti. el artículo termina examinando las obras de Anchieta y los asentamientos religiosos conocidos como Santidades estrechamente vinculados con la identidad católica híbrida predicada por los jesuitas. paLaBras cLaves: José de Anchieta, aculturación, inculturación. Jesuitas, traducción de textos religiosos. The mixed identity of the Catholic religion in the texts translated by the Jesuit priest Jose de Anchieta in 16th century Brazil This article will examine the characteristics of the Catholicism found in the translation of religious texts by the Jesuit missionary José de Anchieta (1534-1597) in Brazil in the 16th century. The study will show that Anchieta used terms from the spiritual world of the Tupi indians in his translations as «equivalents» for Christian terms as a way of introducing Christianity but made no attempt to understand the deeper meaning of these terms. We make a parallel of Anchieta’s readiness to mix Christian Catholic terms and concepts from the spiritual world of the Brazilian indians with the «dynamic equivalence» found in the work of eugene Nida and the concepts of domestication and foreignization found in the work of Lawrence Paulo edson Alves Filho Venuti. The article will also examine the writings of Anchieta and the religious settlements called Santidades, which were closely Universidad de Sorocaba, Brasil related to the hybrid identity of Catholicism preached by the Jesuits. John Milton keywords: José de Anchieta, acculturaltion, inculturaltion. Jesuits, Universidad de Sao Paulo, Brasil religious translation. PAuLo eDSoN AlveS FiLHo, JoHN MiltoN TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 12, 2008 the arrival of the jesuits in brazil were also subject to the colonizers, known as mamelucos1, as they were seen as a potential In 1500, when Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived in slave workforce for the large sugar cane farms 68 the lands that would be called Brazil, a mass and mills along the coast. From the contact was promptly celebrated. This fact shows with mameluco and Portuguese colonizers the that the Portuguese Crown and the Catholic Indians were subjected to slavery and mistreat- Church were partners in the enterprise of colo- ment. It can be said that the colonizers were nizing this part of South America. The Portu- interested in their bodies, their potential as a guese, still in the atmosphere of the Crusades, labour force, whereas the Jesuits were interested had the Cross of the Order of Christ painted in their souls2. on the sails of Cabral’s fleet. They landed in what is the modern-day state the jesuit translations to tupi: a of Bahia, but the main town they founded was mixing of cultural patterns São Vicente, in what is now the state of São Paulo, over a thousand kilometers further south in 1555, three years after arriving in Brazil, Jose down the coast. There, Manuel da Nóbrega, a de Anchieta supervised a meeting with other leading priest of the Society of Jesus, started his «Lingoas» (Jesuits who spoke Tupi fluently) activities of teaching and catechizing the Tupi in Sao Vicente, in order to normalize the ter- Indians. The main impression of the Jesuits was minology used in the Dialogues and Speeches that the Indians neither had any religion nor addressed to the Indians. By this time Anchieta worshipped any deity or god. had learnt and mastered Tupi and translated It did not take long for the Portuguese to texts such as the Roman Catechism, primers, change their minds: as soon as they were in parish manuals, spiritual exercises, poems and contact with the Indians’ anthropophagical rit- didactic plays. uals they realized that these rituals were closely In order to make these translations, Anchieta connected to the Devil. tried to transfer a set of concepts from his cul- From 1543 on the Jesuits were simultaneously ture to Tupi. Due to the enormous difference engaged in delivering the message of God and between both cultures, the results were often erasing the Indians’ ancient habits. In order to unexpected, as Alfredo Bosi (1992:65) states: carry out this complex task, Nobrega depended «In the passage from one symbolic sphere to on other members of the Society, among them another, Anchieta found obstacles which at times the prominent priest, José de Anchieta, who could not be solved. How could the Tupi Indians was the most important translator of the liturgy be told about the word ‘sin’ if they had no such used for catechizing the natives. Both Nobrega notion, at least according to what was registered and Anchieta had the missionary task of gathe- throughout the Middle Ages in Europe?»3 ring the Indians in villages and, through prea- 1 ching, bringing them close to the true Catholic Mameluco, word from the Arabic, memluk, «slave», the household cavalry of the former sultans of Egypt. A faith. Besides this, they would fight polygamy general term applied in South America to designate the and nudity among other so-called ‘barbarian’ mixed European-Indian race. 2 For a broader discussion on the intentions of Euro- ways of the Indian daily lives. pean colonizers in Brazil, see Schwartz 1988. Differently from the Jesuits, the Indians 3 «Na passagem de uma esfera simbólica para a outra TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 12, 2008 the mixed identity of the cathoLic reLigion in the texts transLated by the Jesuit priest Jose de anchieta Anchieta frequently tried to look for some ves rather than for its diabolical essence. corresponding element in two languages with Bosi (op.cit., p. 69) states that the most unequal results (op. cit., p. 67) as, for instance, efficient method of destroying the bad habits translating «angel» as «karaibebe», or «a flying of the Indians was quickly discovered: genera- 69 shaman» or «devil» as ‘Anhangá’, whose original lizing fear among the natives and extending it meaning for the Tupi Indians was the super- to all entities that might appear in the native natural entity that protected the animals and trances and ceremonies, demonizing any events the jungle. Through the speech of Anhangá in that facilitated the path for the return of the his plays he observed the Indian rituals and dead. At the time of the arrival of Europeans in behavior (i.e., anthropophagy, polygamy, com- Brazil witches and sorcerers were persecuted all munication with the dead) as devilish. over Europe. The imaginary of the men from Anhangá was not exactly an evil entity (evil Europe on American soil was dominated by the as per the European definition), but a mutable vision of parallel forms of religion, i.e., pagan being that could take on a number of identities worship, and thus the tendency was to interpret in order to entrap humans. the worship of the Indians as a kind of «demo- Manipulating and translating elements nolatry». In the same way that in Europe, like these, Anchieta tried to reorganize their pagan rituals and worship were condemned and place in the Tupi imaginary. In order for the suppressed, in America the Europeans had to Manichean-European religious perspective to exterminate the tradition of paganism (Mello e be inserted in the Indian religion, Tupã (ori- Souza, 1993). ginally meaning the thunder god) would need It is no surprise that Anchieta chose the an opposite force to represent the dark side and Devil as the most common character in his the Devil, which Anchieta would name Anhan- plays. Through the Devil’s speech, he would gá, who, according to the Indian imaginary, was portray Indian rituals and behavior as devilish, the protector of the jungle and animals and had criticizing them and delivering a strong mes- amazing powers and skills, and was able to shift sage against them. Cannibalism and polygamy form and shape and torment human beings. In were key elements for the Indians’ social lives, this new model introduced by the Jesuits, the and were the elements which most appalled powers of Anhangá were increased: he would the missionaries. But the Indians did not relate take on the role of Prince of the Darkness and them to Anhangá. Cannibalism was the result would be directly responsible for all bad habits of warfare and important for the tribe’s supre- of the Amerindians such as cannibalism, poly- macy over their enemies. A prisoner of war gamy, drunkenness from cauim4, and all other would be kept for several months, treated well «devilish» rituals for European eyes. Indeed, and sometimes given a wife. But on an appoin- Anchieta might have made this choice as a ted day he would be killed and prepared for a result of the fear Anhangá inspired in the nati- feast. Old women drank his blood and mothers smeared it over their breasts. The body was Anchieta encontrou óbices por vezes incontornáveis. Co- roasted and eaten by the entire village and their mo dizer aos tupis, por exemplo, a palavra pecado, se eles guests. If the prisoner had been given a wife, careciam até mesmo da sua noção, ao menos no registro que esta assumira ao longo da Idade Média européia?» she wept for him, but then she also joined the 4 Wine made of fermented corn.