Book review about: Cuerpos bajo vigilancia: las mujeres en las misiones jesuíticas del Chaco, by Beatriz Vitar (2022)

Abstract

Historiography has traditionally dismissed the study of the practices and roles of indigenous women in the colonial Gran Chaco, replicating the arguments of Jesuit sources without questioning them critically enough. In her new book, Cuerpos bajo guardia: las mujeres en las misiones jesuíticas del Chaco, Beatriz Vitar presents the results of the research she has conducted on the subject throughout her career and analyzes the sources, beyond what they explicitly say, in order to retrieve the indigenous female reality hidden behind ecclesiastical pens. The purpose of this text is to review the abovementioned book..