l life of South American indigenous people, gave them a justification to adapt to many of the elements of the new culture they were being exposed to. Other themes that are shared today by both cultures include: “New World version of the theme of descent, ascent, and salvation is the way by which the tropical hell of jungle and jungle natives is so clearly opposed to the terrestrial paradise of the highlands above. The imagery proper to each realm, as well as the cycle of death and rebirth connecting them, reappear persistently down through the ages-as we shall see in curing visions of pure white colonists, Indians and Capuchin missionaries in the twentieth century in the Putumayo”(Taussig, 292). Their religious beliefs were not identical, but the larger foundations of the Christianity were deemed acceptable on the basis of vital tentets. Another common after effect, as a result of colonization, is the creation of myths that combine deities, and the members of the two separate cultures. This idea is not new; it occurred even in ancient times when one Greek city-state would conquer another. Stories would be constructed, finding a way to link together particular concepts of both the conqueror and the conquered to serve as an identifying force for both of the groups to relate with. In many of the mythic stories involving Catholic saints within South America, there is an indigenous person involved, serving as a link to their historical narratives. One such example is the Legacy of the Wild Woman of the forest, otherwise known now as Our Lady of Remedies(Taussig, 188-189). In the setting just north of the city known as Cali, around the year of 1560, a South Amerindian told a missionary that they knew of an existing statue just like the one that the missionary was using to worship. The Indians believed that if they made offerings to her that she would make their hunting and harvests plentiful, giving her the symbolic name...
