Missionizing on the Edge

Religion and Power in the Jesuit Missions of Spanish Amazonia

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Established in 1638 in a vast Amazonian territory that today encompasses border areas of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, the missions of Maynas were one of the Society of Jesus’s main enterprises in Spanish America. Jesuit writings provide a unique insight into the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples. In effect, they shed light on how native Amazonians appropriated elements of Christian religiosity and Iberian urban culture. This book is not only about how indigenous populations experienced life in missions. It is above all a study of how natives actively engaged with the practices and ideas of settlement and religiosity that the Jesuits transmitted.
Copyright Year:
2023
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-52789-8
Publication:
28 Dec 2022
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-46203-8
Publication:
22 Dec 2022
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Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho is an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is also a professor of history at Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil. He earned his PhD from the University of São Paulo.
Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Images of Natives
 1 “Friendly” and “Barbaric” Indians
 2 Settlers, Missionaries, and Imagined Indians
 3 Encomenderos and Images of Natives

2 Images of the Devil
 1 The Devil in Amazonia
 2 The Devil’s Physical Presence
 3 Shamans and the Devil

3 Missionary Entradas and Ethnic Processes
 1 Missionary Entradas and Punitive Expeditions
 2 Modus Operandi
 3 Parcialidades and Ethnicities

4 Territorial Disputes and the Financing of the Missionary Enterprise
 1 On the Frontiers of the Real Patronato
 2 Origins of the Resources
 3 Procurators, Martyrs, and Territorial Possession
 4 The Missionaries’ Annual Synod
 5 The Trade in Mission Products
 6 The Missionary Shortage

5 Between Captivity and Conversion: Spanish Jesuits, Portuguese Carmelites, and Indigenous Peoples
 1 Carmelites
 2 War Troops and Ransoming Troops
 3 Ransoming Troops and the Carmelites
 4 The Rhetoric of Conquest and Indigenous Agency

6 Mediators of the Sacred: Missionaries’ Indigenous Auxiliaries
 1 Cabildantes and fiscales de doctrina
 2 Competitive Sociability
 3 Fault and Correction
 4 Reversibility and Reframing

7 “A Veritable Jungle of Languages”: Jesuits, Language Policy, and Cultural Translation
 1 Challenges Involved in Learning
 2 The Interpreters
 3 Aspects of Language Policy
 4 Vocabularies and Catechisms
 5 The Translation of Christian Doctrine

8 Conversions
 1 Jesuits and Shamans
 2 Catechesis and Mass in the Daily Life of Missions
 3 Forms of Appropriating Catholic Festivals and Devotions
 4 Ambiguities Surrounding the Sacraments
 5 Civil Customs and Religious Rites

Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
All those interested in indigenous history, Jesuits, and religion in the early modern Atlantic World. Keywords: Jesuit Missions, Amazonia, Spanish Empire, Indigenous Peoples, Conversion to Christianity, South America.
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