La invención de la religión indígena: Adaptación, apropiación y mímesis en las fronteras misioneras de Sudamérica colonial

Abstract

During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits missionaries produced several accounts describing the South American indigenous societies. They generally distinguish two levels of discourse. One, more visible, corresponded to the identification of native beliefs (concepts, terms) in the local languages and their translation into Christian ideas. Another level, less visible, corresponded to the Indian ritual practices themselves, which could be rejected as evil superstitions, or equated to sacraments or relegated to the sphere of innocuous customs that could be gradually domesticated. This article examines the nature of «missionary anthropology» emphasizing its ambiguities over the long term. My argument is that in their descriptions of indigenous societies Jesuits construct an arbitrary boundary between tolerable and intolerable customs to control both knowledge about those societies before the colonial administration and the monopoly of spiritual administration before the indigenous societies themselves.