more diversified and open to new ideas. Due to similar preexisting beliefs, the Natives largely openly accepted Catholicism. Catholicism was accepted by indigenous people into their culture and the transition in religion was not very difficult for them to accept. “Catholicism embodied a rich pageantry and complex ceremonial cycle. It offered roles to men and women, young and old. Its priests believing in the devil, spirits and magic, could deal with the older religion in ways that Meso-American people could squarely comprehend. And Catholicism provided, in its multiple manifestations of the Virgin and Trinity, both an approximation of multiple deities and physical object for veneration”(Kessing, 394). This was very similar to the practices of their native religion and allowed them to perceive the spirit in much the same way as they already had been without devaluing the lasting elements of their own religion.One of the most important examples of syncretism in South America is through the examples provided from hallucinogenic trances, via the intake of yage. Shamans utilized this during their curing rituals. The images developed from the trances have been recounted to show images that represent a blending of traditional indigenous beliefs with that of Christian beliefs. A visionary example of this is seen in the visions of a shaman as a tiger and of people receiving the blessing from the Virgin Mary. Both of these symbols ,one of the Native Indian’s culture and the other from the dominant culture, can coexist within the same image during a yage trance. This serves as a representation of assimilation of Indigenous culture to particular Western themes while still valuing the ideas, commonly seen in hallucinogenic ritual. This was a strong force for the Indigenous people to justify their coexistence with the Western World from a cultural basis. The hallucinogenic ritual, as an important element in the cultura...
