Introduction

The economic, ecological, and political life of prewar Buguias was guided by a strong community consensus in religious ideology. That consensus has been sundered since the war by a growing Christian presence, the full import of which has yet to be reckoned. Christian converts today account for roughly a third of the village's population, and their continued proselytizing has made religious belief a primary axis of controversy.

The following discussion opens by introducing the central tenets of Pagan thought, a metaphysics in which earthly fortune is firmly tied to ritual performance. Many of the practices based on this belief were described in detail in the discussion of prewar prestige feasts. In this chapter, additional rituals concerned with "capturing luck" are introduced, and the implications of the whole set of Pagan practices for the community's social structure are analyzed. The remainder of the chapter recaps the relatively brief history of Christian missionizing in the area, presenting in detail both sides of the subsequent ideological debate, and exploring the social and geographic contours of the present standoff between the two groups of believers and their numerous syncretic offshoots.