The Political Dimension of Space-Time Categories in the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay (17th and 18th Centuries)

WILDE, GUILLERMO

Space and Conversion in Global Perspective

Brill

Lugar: Leiden; Año: 2014; p. 175 - 213

The Spanish monarchy?s policy of gathering natives into mission towns (reducciones) aimed to impose a new civil spatial order that would efficiently convey the very principles of Christianity. At the begining of 17th century the Jesuits built up more than fifty mission towns in the South American jungle, seeking to impose a new idea of society on the natives.This chapter is divided into three parts. The first describes space-time ordering in daily mission life according to Jesuit descriptions, focusing on how the urban organization of mission towns was efficiently oriented for discipline and social control. The second part analyses evidence about indigenous reactions to Jesuit impositions, emphasizing the way natives appropriated some impositions and contributed to the formation of mission space patterns. In its third section, the chapter explores visual-spatial developments that resulted from negotiations and adaptations between Jesuits and indigenous actors.