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This here [heaven] our good place with Jesus, nobody sad, nobody tires working, there good place and the sun lighting up everything... and what a sun in our place. Here we are in the dark, there no dark, everything lit up, this will never end... the book tells everything (1988).

The 'darkness of the earth' makes sense to the extent that the terrestrial level hides, in many forms and in different features, several classes of supernatural beings only visible to shamans. They appear to men precisely during shamanistic rituals, when all is dark and nothing can be seen. Potentially aggressive and cannibalistic, these beings maintain a mutually predatory relationship with mankind. In this way, in contrast to an earth full of hidden dangers, there is a world where everything is visible, all is light.

Purification

Baptism is an event of the utmost importance to the Taurepang. In the ritual the 'body is washed' according to the Taurepang, removing Makoi from the body and leaving this in the care of Rato, an aquatic serpent below the waters. Those baptized emerge from the river as new people able to travel the road to heaven after their deaths.

Trapped on the earthly level, their social situation binds humans to permanent interaction with the spirits of the forest and the rivers, the domains from which food is obtained. But hunting and fishing constitute a form of 'robbery' of the children of the parents of each species or, in the case of fish, of the children of Rato. In the same way that the illnesses affecting humans are in the majority of cases the result of the theft of the souls of the victims by these beings. In such cases the intervention of the shaman is required. He will be responsible for restoring the sick person to health or for maintaining the balance in the relationship, constantly under threat, between the inhabitants and the world that encircles the village. It is this situation that turns people imatanesak: the consumption of game and the consequent need for shamanistic treatment that puts people into contact with the spirits of the dead and the Mawari.

Baptism is able to resolve this situation since it is accompanied by a series of food restrictions, above all the consumption of large animals and of caxiri [fermented manioc beer]. Thus whilst shamanistic cure consists of standing up to malevolent spirits, baptism has a preventative purpose.

We can thus see that, through baptism, prophetic religion appears as a counterpoint to a particular world with which hitherto only a shaman could interfere. The prophets thus offer a new relationship with this world, operating by means of elements similar to those of the shamans - words. Words that encapsulate knowledge of a domain representing the overcoming of present conditions.

From Makunaíma to Jechikrai

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A The adoption of Adventism by the Taurepang can be understood not as a simple catechistic imposition but, once its contents have been interpreted, as a doctrine that makes sense in terms of the Taurepang world view. Thus prophetic religion can be seen not as a response to adverse conditions resulting from contact, but as a solution to an internal dilemma of the society; that is to say, the impossibility of encountering a ‘good place’, an upatá, among the different domains of the earthly plane.

Thus, just as knowledge of the supernatural beings was restricted to the shamans and those trained in magic incantations (the Taren), knowledge of the celestial paradise became a monopoly of the prophets, the bearers of new words that, unlike the words pronounced in the Taren and which refer to the past (to the Pia daktai), evoke a future time. In an analogous way, as the shamanistic narrative focuses above all on the earthly level, the prophetic narrative concentrates on the celestial level. Therefore it is not the case that there is a radical opposition between prophets and shamans, since the visions of the prophets are reached through the same mechanisms as the shaman’s trances – through journeys of the soul.

It should be stressed that the celestial upatá is a place that has been prepared. Jechikrai (the Taurepang version of Jesus Christ) is charged with this task. His characteristics are thus diametrically opposed to those attributed to Makunaíma. The latter, following his journeys on the earth, left for the east (in other words, he departed horizontally) bequeathing a hostile world to humans. In addition his social behaviour was incorrect and excessive. On the other hand, he who the Taurepang call Jechikrai will arrive from above (in other words, moving vertically), ready to lead mankind to a place of total security. Good teachings for social harmony are also associated with him, together with measured behaviour, of which the food taboos are the best example. To summarize, just as the celestial paradise came to be conceived in opposition to the earth to which the Taurepang find themselves relegated, this new actor can only be understood to the extent to which he negates the attributes of the cultural hero Makunaíma.

A new meaning is thus given to the concept of upatá, relocating it on another plane, the beyond. Upatá is therefore the central notion by which the Carib peoples of the lavrado [high plains] region of Roraima have incorporated the teachings of the missionaries, crediting them with the form of prophetic movements. It is the place of full security, which the Taurepang try however precariously to adapt to the place where they actually live. Mankind’s erratic journeys through life, as well as the doubts that assail them at each resting place (where do we go now?) lead the Taurepang to believe that these movements are not guided by a fixed destination. Abandoned by Makunaíma in a hostile world, the only thing that remains for the Taurepang to do is to believe in a new hero who, seeing their earthly suffering will focus on preparing a new place in heaven for them.