ABSTRACT: This study, which has a bibliographical research approach, shows that the novel Maíra, by anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro, starts from the liturgic and serious model of the Mass (and of the protestant worship service) and undergoes displacement or inversion of the original meaning, demanding new interpretation for the Sacrifice, as the biblical and conventional texts become sacrilegious, and at times, treated with contempt. The function of this intertextual parodistic discourse in Maíra as well as in the present work, is cathartic. It aims at releasing the tensions of this dramatic moment and of the struggle for survival of the indigenous Brazilian people. Order turns into chaos and the original meaning of Communion is subverted in all four parts of the romance in order to expose the whiteman’s barbarity against the Indian Mairum, the (fictitious) archetype of a race eucharisted by catechism and by the greediness of those invested with power. The four divisions presented for reflection come directly from the four sections of the liturgical and pagan masaic reconstructed (or devastated) by the author himself, e. g. Antiphon, Homilia, Canon and Corpus. The impact with civilization demands from the village people a constant redefinition of its mythical body and values in order that tribal tradition endure. Key-words: novel Maíra, Darcy Ribeiro, catechesis/catechism, Brazilian indian sacrifice, intertext.

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