ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the failure of missionary activity in a Runa village in Peru’s southern highlands. From the year 1532 when Francisco Pizarro landed on the coast of Peru and began his campaign to conquer the Incas, missionaries have been actively seeking to convert the indigenous populations to Christianity. Anthropologists writing on religious aspects of contemporary Runa life have by no means given people a uniform picture. Much academic attention has also been focused on the Runa fiesta cycle, the most overt form of religious expression in many communities and the topic of extensive description and analysis. The theoretical development in anthropology, which has gone beyond the compartmentalising of social phenomena into categories such as religion, politics and economics, has freed people to approach the study of religion as a cultural system and as a consequence has resulted in a much more fruitful examination of Runa culture in all its varied aspects.
