569. Ribeiro, RenŽ. "Brazilian Messianic Movements." In Millennial Dreams in Action edited by Sylvia L. Thrupp. The Hague: Mouton, 1962: 55-69.
Ribeiro attributes the appeal of messianism to isolation, poverty, and "lack of real religious help." He criticizes reductionist explanation: calamity leads to social and political unrest and deprivation, which give rise to mass anxiety, psychological tension, or psychosis and collective protest. The movements' "aesthetic appeal" should also be considered, along with "the need for renewed dramatic experience [boredom?],Ê...Êthe appeal of new types of leadershipÊ...Ê[and] social relationships" that movements offer (p. 59) Indigenous cosmologies must also be considered; if these offer a view of impending doom anyway, successful messianic movements appear less surprising than they might otherwise. Ribiero attacks psychopathological explanations in view of these traditions of messianism.
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