San Cristóbal in the Amazon: Colonialism, violence and child sorcery among the Arawak people of the Peruvian central jungle

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of child sorcery, that is, of children accused of being sorcerers, among the Arawakan peoples of eastern Peru. It is suggested that this practice was the result, in colonial times, of the mimetic appropriation and structural transformation of the Christian legend of St Christopher and the Christ Child into the myth of a cannibalistic giant and his evil infant son. The notion that children could become potent witches would have been reinforced in postcolonial times by epidemics affecting mostly adults. If this is so, the belief in child sorcery would be one of those unforeseen and tragic products of the colonial encounter. In their eagerness to exorcise colonial violence Peruvian Arawaks turned against themselves, unleashing violence against their children’s bodies and through them to the body politic at large. This practice, thought to have been abandoned in the 1970s, has reappeared with renewed force in recent times as a result of the violence and social disruption resulting from confrontations with insurgent groups and the Peruvian Army.