The Invention of Savage Society: Amerindian Religion and Society in Acosta's Anthropological Theology

The problem of converting the Amerindian world to Catholicism was given a
radically new solution, both at a theoretical and a missionary level, by the
Jesuit Acosta: since American societies were of a completely different nature
to Mediterranean ones, the preaching of the Gospel, too, had to be different
from the classical approach. He gave a new definition to both preaching and
American societies, especially the latter’s religion and social organisation.
Acosta’s approach to American sauvagerie was pioneering; he conceptualised
ideas that had never been thought of before. There existed societies which were
neither barbarous nor political (like the empires of Incan Peru and Aztec
Mexico), which nonetheless had social organisation. With regard to their
religious life, Acosta maintained that cult and belief without faith was not a
sign of atheism, but of an early form of religion. These two reassessments gave
rise to a new image of the savage society, which attained enormous success, even
outside the missionary world.