Inculturation and acculturation in the translation of religious texts: The translations of Jesuit priest José de Anchieta into Tupi in 16th century Brazil

Paulo Edson Alves Filho and John Milton
Universidade de Sorocaba (UNISO) | Universidade de São Paulo (USP)

Abstract

This article examines the translation of religious texts by the Jesuit missionary Joséde Anchieta in Brazil in the 16th century. The article shows that Anchieta used a large amount of inculturation, a readiness to mix Catholic and native Indian terms, in order to achieve the catechism of the Indians, their acculturation into Catholicism. However, this inculturation always remained at a superficial level as Anchieta used terms from the spiritual world of the Tupi Indians but made no attempt to understand the deeper meaning of these terms. The article describes the background of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers in Latin America, lists the characteristics of the Tupi Indian language and analyzes a number of Anchieta’s writings in Tupi in which he translated certain important Christian concepts into Tupi.

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Table of contents

This article will examine the translation of religious texts by the Jesuit missionary Joséde Anchieta (Canary Islands 1534–Espírito Santo, Brazil 1597) in Brazil in the 16th century. The article shows that the translations of Anchieta contain a large amount of inculturation, a readiness to mix Catholic and native Indian terms, in order to achieve the catechism of the Indians, their acculturation into Catholicism. However, this inculturation always remained at a superficial level. [ p. 276 ]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 as having much in common with the “dynamic equivalence” found in the work of Eugene Nida. The article will initially examine the background of both Spanish and Portuguese colonizers of what is now called Latin America; it will then look at some of the characteristics of the Tupi Indian language; and will finally analyze a number of Anchieta’s writings in Tupi in which he translated certain important Christian concepts into Tupi.

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