Bem-Te-Vi magazine and education for indigenous people in the Dourados / MT reserve in the first half of the XX century

Abstract

The civilization and education project developed by Protestant missionaries in the first half of the 20th century for the ethnic groups, Kaiowá, Guarani and Terena of the Indigenous Reservation of Dourados (RID), in the southern region of Mato Grosso (MT), had the circulation of the Methodist magazine Bem-te-vi, from 1922. Thus, the article analyzes the education given to the indigenous people in this period based on the contents covered in the Magazine, seeking to relate the education project to the positivist theory. In order to compose the analyzes carried out in this text, it was necessary to resort to documents from the Francisco Horta Indigenous Post, available in the archives of the Museu do Índio do Rio de Janeiro, the Protestant newspaper O Estandarte, available for online consultation and the magazine Bem-te-vi. The results showed that the evangelical press contributed to the education, evangelization and “civilization” project aimed at indigenous people, through content. Thus, we can see that this press prioritized the formation of Christian and civilized subjects, thus reaching the stage of development.