This article describes Brazil’s late twentieth-century religious transformation through the lens of an Amazonian settler family whom I call the Solanhas. Accounts of various Solanha members’ shifting religious and political commitments elucidate how the perceived impossibility of constant human (as opposed to divine) friendship, a perception that also applies to the limitations of kinship, is implicated in the move from an encompassing Catholicism to an intensifying secularity. In foregrounding problems of friendship and kinship, the ethnography begins from a different premise than most studies of secularity. Anthropologists have tended to describe secularity as a condition secured by political/state secularism, which manages and produces distinctions between religion and politics. Drawing on the work of Marilyn Strathern and others, I show that relations, especially kinship and friendship, are more vital than secularism in animating distinctions among religion(s) and politics. I argue that if secularity is to be grasped more fully, the flow of all conceptual and interpersonal relations, and especially kinship and friendship in all their instability, must be brought into view. An anthropologically informed approach to secularity, and ultimately to history, should emphasize the irresolvable challenges of relating, as these challenges will remain key elements of life, knowledge, and ultimately of change in these mutable times.

中文翻译：

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巴西不可能的工作

本文通过我称之为 Solanhas 的亚马逊移民家庭的镜头描述了巴西 20 世纪后期的宗教变革。各种 Solanha 成员不断变化的宗教和政治承诺的描述阐明了人类（相对于神圣）友谊是不可能的，这种看法也适用于亲属关系的局限性，这与从包容性天主教到日益加强的天主教的转变有关。世俗。在友谊和亲属关系的前景问题中，民族志从与大多数世俗研究不同的前提开始。人类学家倾向于将世俗性描述为由政治/国家世俗主义所保障的条件，它管理并产生宗教与政治之间的区别。借鉴玛丽莲·斯特拉森等人的作品，我表明，在激发宗教和政治之间的区别方面，关系，尤其是亲属关系和友谊，比世俗主义更为重要。我认为，如果要更充分地理解世俗性，则必须考虑到所有概念和人际关系的流动，尤其是在所有不稳定的情况下的亲属和友谊。以人类学为基础的世俗化方法，并最终探讨历史，应该强调相关性无法解决的挑战，因为这些挑战将仍然是生活、知识和最终在这些多变时代发生变化的关键要素。尤其是在他们不稳定的情况下的亲属和友谊，必须被考虑在内。以人类学为基础的世俗化方法，并最终探讨历史，应该强调相关性无法解决的挑战，因为这些挑战将仍然是生活、知识和最终在这些多变时代发生变化的关键要素。尤其是在他们不稳定的情况下的亲属和友谊，必须被考虑在内。以人类学为基础的世俗化方法，并最终探讨历史，应该强调相关性无法解决的挑战，因为这些挑战将仍然是生活、知识和最终在这些多变时代发生变化的关键要素。