Viewing page 67 of 78

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Inland South America Missionary Union
Founded 1902

UNITED STATES SECTION
Incorporated 1921

President, REV. KENNETH MACKENZIE
First Vice-President, J. HARVEY BORTON

Vice-Presidents

A. J. CARR, Seattle, Wash.
R.G. DEEVERS, Pittsburgh, Pa.
D.L. FOSTER, Chicago, Ill.
HENRY HALE, New York, N. Y.
DOUGLAS OBER, Baltimore, Md.
Secretary, REV. JOSEPH A. DAVIS

REV. J. J. STAUB, Portland, Ore.
FRED D. TAYLOR, Oakland, Calif.
PROF. J. B. TROWBRIDGE, Los Angeles,
Calif.
CHAS. GALLAUDET TRUMBULL, Phila., Pa.
HUGO WURDACK, St. Louis, Mo.
Treasurer, ALFRED H. VROOM

Board of Directors
SAMUEL R. BOGGS
J. HARVEY BORTON
A. A. CLARKE
REV. JOSEPH A. DAVIS
DR. GEORGE H. DOWKONTT
D.L. FOSTER
REV. ALBERT DALE GANTZ, D.D.
HENRY HALE
ADOLPH HANSEN
REV. KENNETH MACKENZIE
W. G. A. MILLAR
HARRY D. PHILLIPS
REV. W. W. RUGH
NORMAN D. SMITH
REV. JOS. G. SNYDER
REV. BENJ. S. STERN, D.D.
REV. F. W. TROY
ALFRED H. VROOM

Adress all communications and send all checks, drafts, express or postal money orders to: REV. JOSEPH A. DAVIS, Secretary, 113 Fulton Street New York, N. Y.

CANADIAN SECTION
Office--366 Bay Street,
Toronto 2, Ontario

President
J. MARTIN GARDNER, Toronto.

Vice-President
REV. T. H. BALLENTYNE, Toronto.

Secretary-Treasurer
REV. W. J. ANDERSON

W. J. ANDERSON, Toronto, Ont.
E. H. BAWTINHEIMER, Vancouver, B. C.
J. F. M. BINGHAM, Toronto, Ont.
Rev. J. W. BOYD, Toronto, Ont.
A. M. GIBSON, St. John, N. B.
V. E. GOUGH, Vancouver, B. C.
J. GRANT, Hamilton, Ont.
REV. JOHN GIBSON INKSTER, Toronto, Ont.
REV. JAS. MCFARLANE, Hamilton, Ont.
REV. A. W. ROFFE, Gravenhurst, Ont.

BRITISH SECTION
Office--130 George Street
Edinburgh, Scotland

Chairman--REV. JAS. E. HOUSTON, B.D

Honorary Medical Advisor
JOHN M. DARLING, ESQ., D.S.O., M.A.,
M.B., F.R.C.S.E.

Secretary-Treasurer 
GEORGE U. GRAHAM

Vice-Presidents
REV. J. STUART HOLDEN, D.D., London
W. ROUNSFELL BROWN, ESQ., B.L., Glasgow
REV. R. WRIGHT HAY, London
REV. J. R. S. WILSON, B.D., Edinburgh

Hon. Deputation Secretary for England 
ANGUS MCKENZIE, ESQ., Liverpool

Printed in the U. S. A.
[[end page]]

[[start page]]

INLAND SOUTH AMERICA
(Published Quarterly)
Vol. XXVI, No. 3  June 15, 1931

SOME INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING INLAND
SOUTH AMERICA 

The Peoples of South America

The inhabitants of South America may be divided into three main classes: the Indians, descended from the early possessors of the soil; the Latin Americans, descended from the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors; and the immigrants.  In addition to these, there is also, in Brazil, a considerable Negro element, which was introduced in the days of slavery.

Between the first two classes, there is no distinct division, the one having to a considerable extent, merged into the other through intermarriage.  Only in the cities of the coast and rivers are to be found those who at least call themselves pure descendants of the conquerors.  As we advance inland the predominance of the Indian soon becomes marked, civilization rapidly gives place to semi-civilization, and that again is superseded by the most primitive conditions of savagery as we penetrate into the unexplored haunts of the pure wild Indian in the interior.

The pure blood Indians readily divide into two classes:  the Incas, the Quechuas, the Aymaras, and other descendants of the great nations, which may now be termed semi-civilized, but whose civilization prior to the conquest, attained to a remarkably high degree of perfections and the savage Indians who roam through the great unexplored forest-and-marsh lands of the interior.

The Indians have, from the days of the Conquistadores, been subjected to the greatest cruelty and oppression.  They have been exploited, enslaved, or decimated, as best suited the purpose of their conquerors, and justice for them is, to this day, merely a name, with the inevitable result that peoples who were once virile nations have become either utterly demoralized or bitterly hostile, and unapproachable.

Although the population of South America is commonly termed Latin, it is the Indian element that is generally prevalent.  In discussing this point, a South American writer says:
"The ruling class has adopted the costume, the usages, and the laws of Europe; but the population which forms the national mass is Quechus, Aymara or Aztec.  In Peru, in Bolivia, and in Ecquador the Indian of pure race, not having as yet mingled his blood with that of the Spanish conquerors, constitutes the ethnic base.  In the Sierra the people speak Quechua and Aymara; there also the vanquished races preserve their traditional communism.  Of the total population of Peru and Ecquador the white element only attains to the feeble proportion of 6 per cent.  The pure European element does not amount to 10 per cent of the population.

Religious Beliefs

Previous to the conquest of South America the beliefs of the Indian peoples were of the simple, animistic character common to the aborigines of both Americas; everything partook of a spiritual nature; animals, trees, mountains, the sun and even the elements being placed in the spirit world, and regarded as possessing a sentient, thoughtful self, a soul.  The beliefs of the various peoples were identical in their essence; they differed only in their practice, which varied from the mere domination of the witch doctor among the most primitive tribes to the elaborate ritual and organized priesthood of the Inca Worship of the Sun.

To the present day the savage Indians retain the crude superstitions of their ancestors, and their witch-doctors exercise an influence as great as that which distinguished their brethren of North America, but the Worship of the Sun, and the other beliefs of the more civilized nations have, for the most part, been superseded by the more idolatrous Worship of Mary and the innumerable saints of Rome, modified by many superstitions retained from the former faiths.