I was having a discussion with a friend about the concept of mythology vs. history, and ideas of what history actually means differing throughout cultures.
I remember reading somewhere (where exactly I forgot, hence my post) that some tribal societies assimilated Christian or other Western ideas into their mythologies, and subsequently presented them as having always been part of their tradition/mythology. So you'd have this or that character showing up in their mythology from a certain date in recorded, retracable history, but the way they relate their myths, they make it sound as if this has been their knowledge from the beginning of time.
If you need me to elaborate, let me know, and thank you !
I don't know if it is entirelly related to the adoption of western ideas, but the Guarani people in the Rio de la Plata basin were monotheistic, and the Spanish and Portuguese missionaires took that to their advantage. You can look at this as assimilation of religious concepts. Source: Santillana's Ciencias Sociales 7/6 (it's my textbook from last year of primary school)
By far the best example, in my view, would be Voudoun (Voodoo), Santeria and Obeah.
All those religions are syncretic, meaning, that they were formed when several different religions were mixed together.
For example, Voudoun is a mixture of Carribean Indian indigenous shamanism, African Animism from several cultures and tribes, Catholicism , bits of Hinduism, european folk magic and ascended rural legends.
In effect, several ideas, concepts, and saints from Western Catholicism (and curiously, especially Polish Catholicism) were introduced into an animist pantheon. Thus, for example: Papa Legba IS st. Peter AND African god Lagoba at the same time. Erzulie is simultanously an african fertility goddess, an avatar of hindu death goddess Mahā-Kālī, AND Virgin Mary (or to be more precise, Polish Black Maria of Częstochowa, borrowed from Polish mercenaries who stationed in Haiti during Napoleonic rule).
Despite the fact that these religions are comparatively new, their believers are certain that each dogma and personality of each loa (deity) existed in their faith since the beggining of time, and is not an "import".
A very similar case of syncretism resulted in rastafarianism, however, this religion is yet too young (some of its first adherents may be very well still alive, and their founder only died several decades ago) to describe its history as a settled phenomenon.