The 18th century Jesuit missions in the Amazon Region: a study of cases of miscegenation

Abstract

This article discusses the permanence of various indigenous practices in the Jesuit missions in the state of Maranhão and Grão-Pará, Brazil, in the middle of the 18th century. In contrast with a considerable number of authors, it argues that the Jesuits did not try to extirpate at all costs undesirable cultural characteristics of the indigenous people then living in the missions. If, on the one hand, one has to admit that various native customs survived thanks to indigenous resistance and/or the inadequate or erroneous perceptions of ethnocentric Europeans, it is also plausible to state that this survival was due to the tolerance and flexibility characteristic of Jesuit attitudes and practices. Indeed, tolerance and flexibility are key elements of the Jesuit policy that help to explain the complex process of miscegenation that took place in the Jesuit missions in Brazil.

Key words: 18th century Jesuits in Brazil, Amazon missions, miscegenation.