Cultural mediation, power and conflicts in Jesuit missions of Paraguay, 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

This article focuses on the cultural mediation of the Jesuits within the Paraguay and Río de la Plata missions. It analyzes the control mechanisms the Provincials and Superiors of the Society of Jesus employed to ensure the internal discipline of the Jesuits in the construction of a Christian/civilized society. It also explores the conflicts and indigenous resistance that the missionaries faced in the day-to-day life in the missions. We worked with private documentation produced by Generals, Provincials and Superiors fathers who wrote of or visited the missions, which allowed us to reconstruct a first-hand historical ethnography of its protagonists. We address the attempt of configuring a new social order within the missions and how interethnic relations between the missionaries and the reduced Indians were transformed.