PLANTAS DE GUARANÍES Y JESUITAS QUE DEJAN HUELLA EN LOS HUERTOS MISIONEROS

FURLAN, VIOLETA; STAMPELLA, PABLO; KUJAWSKA, MONIKA; KELLER, HECTOR A.; HILGERT, NORMA I.

Las Misiones del Noreste Argentino, escenario de intercambio de plantas y conocimientos entre el viejo y el nuevo mundo.

EDUNaM

Lugar: Posadas; Año: 2022; p. 90 - 129

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze how the Jesuits’ orchard has been understood at different times in the missions founded among the guarani people. The processes that took place specifically in the orchards of the four missions that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage List in the province of Misiones are also revised. For this study, in addition to specialized bibliography, we discuss different sources of information, such as documents and archaeological surveys. We work with written and visual historical documents of different periods. The analysis shows the elements present in the Jesuit orchards and advances towards its characterization as a space both private and of science. Furthermore, it shows how it has been relegated from descriptions and later from the contemporary management of the sites. This fact had a negative impact on its preservation and on the knowledge of the ethnobotanical heritage related to the plants present in that place. We show the importance of the space of the fathers’ orchard at the moment that the Society of Jesus administered the doctrines of the guarani in colonial South America. There we find a perfect combination between food, ornamental, medicine, and experimental aspects that were designed and evidenced in different ways in each reduction, and related the inhabitants of the Paraná jungleto the world through plants.