Why did Catholic church send anthropologists to study tribes?

Question

Centuries ago, during the colonial expansion, the Catholic Church sent its missionaries to convert tribes all over the world to Christianity. However, some of those missionaries also acted as anthropologists - they studied the tribes and their native religious beliefs. Why would the Catholics do that? What was in it for them?..

Answer 1

Catholics keep the best of all cultures, a kind of cultural adaptation. This is why you can easily find:
+ Black Catholic worship
+ Caribbean Catholic worship
+ Filipino Catholic worship
+ Hawaiian Catholic worship
+ Hispanic Catholic worship
+ Irish Catholic worship
+ Italian Catholic worship
+ Native American Catholic worship
+ Polish Catholic worship
Just to name a few.

A Navajo Catholic explains how the two traditions go together:
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/012100/012100f.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Think of it as psychological evangelism. If you know how a tribe thinks, it will be easier to share your message with them in a way in which they can understand.

The Catholic missionaries intentions were good, at first. They felt they had the message of salvation and hope, and the early church people had been told to "preach the gospel to every nation," so they felt they were following a direct command of Christ and had a moral obligation to show people the way of salvation.

Unfortunately, abuses occurred as governments got greedy and often obliterated the native cultures.

Answer 3

The Catholic church is the universal church, and it has always believed in empowering indigenous peoples to worship the one, true God, in appropriate ways, that are also meaningful and compatible with their culture.

One must study that culture in order to achieve that goal.

Answer 4

The same reason people try to study black people's culture today: the incredibly vain hope that it is possible to understand their infinitely logicless behavior, such that they may be armed with knowledge when they attempt to remove them from the planet.

Damn racists, they make me sick.

Answer 5

A SCIENTIST STILL EXIST IN THE HALF MISSIONARIES.

AND PURPOSE IS TO KNOW ABOUT MORE TRIBES ON SCIENCE SIDES.

BUT christ & muslim WILL DESTROY THE WORLD & EARN MUCH PROFIT FOR THEIR MOTHER BASE WITH OUR WILLING SUCCUBING & SERVING TO THEIR GODS, BUT ACTUALLY THEIR POWERS OF MOTHER BASE.

Answer 6

i quit asking why the catholics believe,say and do what they do a long time ago.
arrogant power trippin pharisees,the lot of them.