Effects Of Syncretism On Native American Religion

Syncretism did inhibit Native Americans to disintegrate from the dominant society. The purpose of Europeans wanting to teach Native Americans their religion was to assimilate them of Europeans norms and culture because the Native Americans were thought to be the inferior and more barbaric compared to the more civilized and mannered Europeans who assumed that Christianity was the only one true religion caused the Native Americans to be considered the “Other”.

The difference of religion is important where the Native Americans religion is based on nature as well as how natural landscapes and natural object contained super-natural meaning and “power”. For example, the Jesuits have “power” to cause illness, which gained respect from the Native