jesuitas y cielos del chaco

7/30/2019 Jesuitas y Cielos Del Chaco

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F.PIMENTA,N.RIBEIRO,F.SILVA,N.CAMPION,A.JOAQUINITO,L.TIRAPICOS (EDS.):STARS AND STONES

GODS, DEMONS AND DECEIVERS: JESUITS FACING CHACO SKIES

ALEJANDRO MARTN LPEZ

Abstract: The Jesuits missions located in the Chaco are less known than the ones in Paraguay. They are the last step of the Jesuit's missionary devicein the Rio de la Plata region. They were dedicated to 'evangelize' and 'civilize' the aboriginal groups considered more hostile: nomadic hunter-

gatherers who adopted the use of horses and were not controlled by the colonial government. These groups were seen by Europeans as a radicalotherness. That is why, the Jesuits descriptions of Chaco Indians skies are a very interesting example about the European attitudes toward otherworldviews. This paper explores the use of different paradigms for interpreting these alternative skies: demonic influence, the deception of sorcerersand an Evemeristic reading of the indigenous worldview. This article also addresses some of the interactions between the aboriginal and Christianskies in the mission context.Keywords: South America, Jesuits, Chaco, Religion, Missions, demons

Introduction

During the 18th century, the Jesuits established a series ofmissions in what nowadays is the Argentine Chaco, suchas San Javier in 1743, San Jernimo del Rey in 1748, SanIgnacio de Ledesma 1756, San Pedro in 1764, Jesus ofNazareth Inspn in 1766. This missions are less known

that the ones among the Guaran and also had a shorterduration. However, they were extremely importantbecause they were located at a border area, which wasthought by the Europeans and creoles as a wild andunknown region, inhabited by savage Indians.

In this context, several Jesuits who settled in this regionproduced texts that described their experiences. In them,they discussed sky conceptions of the aboriginal groupsthat lived in Chaco region. These reports were made inthe context of the evangelization mission. Jesuitsopinions about the aboriginal celestial space were notonly mediated by Christian ideas about heaven but also,

by the baroque view of the Greco-Roman conceptions ofthe sky. Moreover, these texts were mostly written afterthe Jesuits expulsion and for this reason they had anapologetic intention. That is why, they tried to honor theJesuits missionaries work, which sometimes leaded themto exaggerate the difficulties of the missionary task. Alsothey tried to present the aboriginal people as beings that,with the right guidance, could be good Christians andloyal individuals. This intent also influenced the waysthey used to present the aboriginal conceptions about thesky. Framed by these tensions, the Chaco skiesdescriptions made by the Jesuits range from theEvemeristic opinion that the aboriginal skies were

populated by old and heroic ancestors, to the idea that itwas the devil who these groups worshiped in the stars.Halfway between these positions, we can locate theargument of the sorcerers as deceivers, which is widelyused in the context of the struggle against shamanism.

Chaco missions

The Great Chaco is located in central South America.Partially covers the south of Bolivia, Paraguay and NWArgentina. It is a sedimentary plain covered withsubtropical savannas. The Chaco was constructed by thecolonial European discourse as a land of Indians.Inhospitable and hostile territories dominated by thepresence of hunter-gatherers opposed to civilization.Also, it was thought as a marginal area to be eliminated, a

refuge for those Creole and Europeans who were outsidethe law and a region where land was wasted. Aboriginalgroups which belong to the Guaycur linguistic group (asfor example Mocoves, Tobas, Abipones, Pilags,Payagus, Caduveos and Mbays) were thought as theprototypical example of the unfaithful Indian and anenemy of progress.

Following Richard (2006) we can say that during the 17thcentury the 'Jesuit missionary machinery' was devoted toindigenous farming groups, the 'foot Indians'. Three mainregions formed this missionary dispositive: the Guaranmissions in the Paraguay's jungles in the NE of the Chacoregion -with 130 000 people and around 30 missions inits splendor-; the missions in Chiquitanas plains, in theNW of the Chaco -about 25,000 people in 10 missions-;and the Lules, Vilelas and Matars missions in theAndean foothills, near the towns and colonial ranches, inthe W of the Chaco. The Chaco was located in the middleof these three cores. Its savannas, with equestrian,

bellicose, hunter-gatherers Indians were thought as aninaccessible area. Only during the 18th century, when theeconomic apparatus of the 'agriculture' missions wasconsolidated, the Jesuits were able to take by assault theChaco. Over 50 years some 25 missions were founded -the total number of reduced Indians are no more than2300 (Schofield Saeger 1985)-, generally of shortduration. The resources of agricultural missions wereessential to support the Chaco missions, designed as partof a regional strategic device.

The Chaco groups organized in small bands had complexrelationships with the colonial society. They were

politically independent from the colonial government.However, many types of exchanges between theseaboriginal groups and the Creole and Europeanpopulation existed: colonial military actions againstChaco groups; violent capture of aboriginal people forobligatory works in colonial settlements; armed raids ofChaco aboriginal groups against colonial cities; and alsocommercial exchanges between the colonial frontiers andthe aboriginal groups especially cattle, horses, feathers,animal skins, honey, weapons, iron instruments, etc.-.

In this context in the year 1749, two important Jesuitmissionaries arrived to South America: Florian Pauckefrom Silesia -at that time part of Austria- and MartinDobrizhoffer from Friedberg -Germany-. Paucke workedin missions for Mocov aboriginal people in the Chaco


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region from 1752 to 1767. Dobrizhoffer worked inmissions for Mocov, Guaran and Abipn aboriginalpeople from 1750 to 1767. In 1767 all Jesuits wereexpelled from the Spaniard domains. Before theexpulsion, Paucke and Dobrizhoffer wrote importantworks about the Chaco missions (Dobrizhoffer 1967-

69[1783]; Paucke 1942-44[1749-1767]). In fact,Dobrizhoffers work had a great relevance at that time inthe configuration of European imagination about SouthAmerican people. Both texts are key sources about life inChaco missions and the role of the skies in the interactionbetween missionaries and aboriginal people.

In many societies the celestial space is link with thenotion of power and conceptions about the proper socialorder. Cosmology is frequently in close relationship withpolitics because its importance in the legitimation of thesocial order. For this reason, the sky is a place ofstruggles for the meaning. The Chaco skies are a very

good example of this.

Jos de Acosta: Indians, Skies and Gods

The Jesuits missioner action occurred at the same time ofthe Catholic Reform which involved a strengthening ofdemonology, specially in the context of the culturalatmosphere of the Spaniard Baroque (Bez-Jorge 2000;Vitar 2001, 1-3). However, we think that thedemonization is not the unique model in the Jesuitsconception about American societies and also it isimportant to distinguish different levels of use of thedemoniac language and metaphors. In this direction we

think that the use of the adjective demoniac to qualifyany perturbation of the Jesuits work (Vitar 2001, 3 and5-6) is a clue to consider differential uses of the demoniaclanguage. Also we need to remember that the Society ofJesus it is not a Spanish institution. Their internationalcharacter it is very relevant to analyze the model used bythe missionaries to think American societies. Specially,many of the Jesuits that worked in Chaco were fromcentral Europe.

The work of the Jesuit Jos de Acosta on Indian ideasabout demons, divinity and skies (Acosta 1954[1590]) arecentral to understand the Jesuits opinions about the

Chaco skies. One central point of Acostas ideas were theattempts of separation of the natural and supernaturalmatters in the treatment of indigenous questions. Aboutthe nature of the American people Acosta supported theidea of the natural goodness of the Indians. He comparedthe aboriginal civilization cultures (specially thesedentary Indians) with the classic Greco-roman ones. Heargued that as a result it could not be entirely the devilswork (Snchez 2002, 18). However, as Snchez (2002,18) pointed out, when Acosta discussed the indigenouscults he had a different opinion. In supernatural mattershe did not hesitated in qualifying indigenous practices asdiabolic. The similarities between some indigenous and

Christian practices were not viewed as testimonies ofGods presence in America but as a diabolic mimic ofGods work. Acosta explicitly mentioned that the idolatrywas an invention of the Devil who was trying to take

Gods place. In this direction Acosta talked about whatnow we would call sacred specialists in terms ofministers of Satan (Acosta 1954[1590], L. V, Cap.XIV). The classic ancient European civilizations and theAmerican aboriginal groups were both deceived by theDevil. In fact, the term idolatry was introduce by

Bartolom de las Casas to understand American religionsas part of the ancient European religions Greek, Roman,Caldean- (Snchez 2002, 19-20). This identification hadimportant consequences. Since Renaissance, with roots inthe origin of Christian reflection, an important tendencyto think classical European myths as material forphilosophical reflection and artistic creation grew. Forthat reason, these myths were not seen as a real threat tothe Christian faith. The assimilation of American believeswith the European myths helped to create opportunitiesfor its legitimation. In fact, as Gruzinski (2004) noted, theuse of classical models was a widely used procedure incolonial America to deal with American cosmovisions.

The statements of classic authors -like Ovid, Lucan,Virgil, Cicero, etc- that Dobrizhoffer used when hediscussed about the Chaco sky are a proof of that.

Snchez also mentioned another important matter for ourpresent work: Acosta (1954[1590], L. V, Cap. IX) madean important distinction between two idolatry genres.One of them was the worship of creatures and `naturalphenomena, the other was the cult of idols made by men.Due to the biblical attitudes about idols, especially in theAncient Testament, Acosta considered that the cult ofcreatures and `natural phenomena was less bad than theother. Interestingly Acosta (1954[1588], Cap. IX, 259)

pointed out that the less developed groups were the lessidolaters. Also he thought that in these first groups theevangelization was more difficult.

Chaco Indians: between Satan and Ignorance

In Chaco region we can see the influence of thisdiscussion. Vitar (2001) talked about the use of thedemon figure in the Jesuits Chaco evangelization. Sheinsists in the central role of this element, but we think thesituation is more complex. These aboriginal people wereviewed alternatively as Satan pupils and atheisticbarbarians. For example, Dobrizhoffer argued that his use

of classical examples in his book about Abipn Indianswere not for stylistic questions. He used this quotations toshow that Abipons manners and believes were usual inancient times (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Volumen I,Prefacio al lector, 47). Paucke, Jesuit partner ofDobrizhoffer, and from a close Europe region, comparedthe Chaco Indian not with Greeks or Romans but with theancient pagan Germans, specially when he referred tothe devils cult in the woods (Paucke 1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 257). Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Vol.II, 52) and Paucke (1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 247)compared the Indian believes with the popular believes ofthe Christian Europe. In fact, Dobrizhoffer explicitly said

: I never had the slightest doubt that they [the Indianshamans] could not know or do anything that exceededhuman strength (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II,48).

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The jesuit Nicols del Techo, Father Provincial of theJesuit Order in Paraguay, wrote a history of theParacuarian Province (Del Techo 1673). In his work hetranscribed testimonies of several Jesuits that worked inthe Chaco region. In his text we can read about the

difficulties in evangelizing the Chaco Indians due to theirrelationships with demons. A testimony of the JesuitsBarcena y Aasco in the decade of 1590- talked aboutthe familiarity between the Indians and the demons.According to both Jesuits the demons were working withthe Indians in their spells and the Indians called themwhistling. The text pointed that the Indians hated theSpaniards because their opposition to idolatry (Del Techo1673, T. I, L. I, Cap. XLIV). In another part of the text, itwas stressed the use of whistles and gestures by oldwomen sorcerers in order to communicate with demons(Del Techo 1673, T.V, L. XIII, Cap. VI).

Paucke (1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 249) also talkedabout the Indian sorcerers as deceivers and liars asother Jesuits like Guevara (Guevara 1969[1764], 545) orDobrizhoffer (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 52).However, he made mentions about the Indian sorcerersview about Jesuits. The Indians thought theirrelationship with missionaries as a battle of supernaturalpower. The Holy Spirit was matched to a shamanicauxiliary. Paucke described shamans attempt to make analliance with the Holy Spirit to exclude the Jesuit fromHeaven.

Another important testimony from this text, (Del Techo

1673, T. IV, L. XI, Cap. I) from the year 1634 andattributed to the Jesuits Andrs Valera and PedroMartnez simultaneously referred to the superstition andsatanic sacrifices of the Indians and their atheism. Thiskind of expressions was very frequent in the Jesuitsdiscourses about the Chaco Indian. The references aboutatheism points out the fact that the Jesuits did not findwords that they could relate to the concept of theChristian god. This supposed atheism was also related tothe difficulties that the missionaries had to explain theChristian doctrine about the souls immortality to thisIndians. The last it is due to the fact that the missionariesdid not understand the Indians ideas about body, self and

person.

Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Volumen II, Captulo VIII,71-73) discussed the Abipn Indians atheism. Hementioned several testimonies from Portuguese andSpaniard chroniclers about the absence of divineknowledge among the American barbarian people. Hecited, as another proof of this, the Apostolic Bull issuedby Pius V on April 29 of 1568, which spoke about thosebarbarous nations [] did not know God intimately.Dobrizhoffer attributed this lack to their limitedunderstanding' and their lazy reasoning. He said that theAbipn ignored God and named Aharaigichi the bad

spirit and Groaperikie their grandparent or ancestor(Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 42). Other authors(Vitar 2001, 12-13) empathize the fact that the Jesuits andalso the Indians of the missions identified the shamanic

powerful beings with demons. In this sense we havestrange expressions as the Abipones boast of beengrandchildren of a demon, like the primitive Gallus toldthey were their children (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783],vol. II, 75).

It is very interesting for our work a conversation betweenDobrizhoffer and the Abipon chief Ycholay, that theJesuit extensively transcribed (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Volumen II, Captulo VIII, 71-73). During atrip at night, Dobrizhoffer pointed to Ycholay the clearsky and said to him:

You dont see heavens majesty, I said, and this order,and this great star party? Who or what would think this isfortuitous? []It is not strange that so many beauties ofthe sky exist only by chance? Don't you think it would bevery strange too that these racings and revolutions of theCelestial Orb would be rule without the reason of a very

wise mind in opposition to the many peoples thought?

Dobrizhoffer said that Ycholay affirmed that they onlylook around to search for resources but not to look for theruler of the stars. This interesting passage shows us thatfor the Jesuits the skys order is an important naturalargument for the Christian god. And for this reason theideas about the sky are fundamental in the evangelizationprocess. Another important matter is the Jesuitsblindness about the particular aboriginal forms of skyconceptualization. The analysis of ethnohistorical andethnological work (Lpez 2009), show as the importantlinks between the structure of Chaco Indian skies and

their conceptions about the supernatural owners ofanimals, vegetal and other resources.

Chaco Skies Descriptions

One of the first Jesuit chroniclers about Chaco Indians,Jos Guevara, wrote a famous passage about the MocovIndians sky and their relationship with the post-mortemlife:

The mocobes faked a tree that they called nalliagdiguain their language, of height so unlimited that it went fromthe earth to the sky. For them, from branch to branch

gaining more elevation the souls went up to fish in ariver (Guevara 1969[1764], 559).

In this direction it is very interesting to pay attention tothe discussions about the Christian Heaven and the accessto this place. The Jesuits banned the traditional mortuarypractices (Del Techo 1673, T. V, L. XIII, Cap. V) thatthey considered superstitions, diabolic practices or tricksof the sorcerers (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783] Vol. II, p.52; Paucke 1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 252). TheJesuits insisted on the power of baptism to purify thehearts including the heart of shamans, and to open thegates of the Christian Heaven. The Jesuits Christian

Heaven was close to the not baptized Indians. Thenarration of a dream from an Indian woman (Del Techo1673, T. IV, L. XI, Cap. I) tell us about this battle ofimaginaries. The Indian saw the Celestial Jerusalem in a


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dream, lighting with a golden bright that in shamanicexperience is a sign of power- but she was expelled fromthat place for not knowing the catholic faith. However,many Indians interpreted the power of the Christian ritesin other ways, like new forms of shamanic power (DelTecho 1673, T. II, L. V, Cap. IX).

In the Jesuits description of Chaco Indian believes the skyhas a central place. In one hand, we need to take intoaccount the importance of the predictions based onunusual astronomical phenomena in Europe during thattime. The Jesuit order itself made this kind of predictions(Vitar 2001, fotnote 22 ). Many Jesuits mentioned theChaco Indian attitudes when extraordinary celestialevents occurred. For example, Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 50) talked about the fact that thisaboriginal people made noise when a lunar or solareclipse took place. Also he mentioned (Dobrizhoffer1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 52) that the Abipn remembered

a very bright star that appeared some time ago and wasfollowed by a very bad year. In addition, this Jesuit(Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 47) mentioned theimportance of meteorites for the aboriginal Chaco peopleas signs of changes in weather or the death of importantshamans. Other Jesuits talked about warlikedemonstrations to intimidate storms (Del Techo 1673, T.III, L. VII, Cap. VIII).

On the other hand, the idolatry of natural phenomenaattributed to the Chaco Indians was mostly centered oncelestial manifestations. A very interesting descriptionfrom the Jesuit Romero in the decade of 1610- said that

the moon and the chariot of Bootes were the ChacoIndians divinities. Also he said that voices and jumps atnew moon were their most important festivity (Del Techo1673, T. II, L. IV, Cap. XVI). Another reference to thisfestivities referred to the importance of drinking (DelTecho 1673, Tomo segundo, Libro quinto, Cap. XVIII).We need to be very careful with the Jesuit astronomicalreferences. For example, the evidence suggests that weneed to understand the first visibility of the moon whenthe Jesuits sources talked about the new moon. Inparticular, the reference to Bootes is very estrangebecause in another part of the text (Del Techo 1673, T.III, L. VII, Cap. VIII) refers that the Indian festivity was

associated to the first visibility of Ursa Minor,constellation that is not visible from Chaco. However, themention is also stranger because important Jesuits sourcesmentioned a different asterism associated with thiscelebration: the Pleiades or cabrillas. Guevara(1969[1764], 544) talked about the noise that the MocovIndians made during their celebrations of the firstvisibility of the Pleiades, the new moon and thewhirlwinds. Also he said that during the Pleiadescelebrations, shamans initiations took place. For thisreason, the missioners banned this practice. Guevarareferred extensively about the Pleiades. He said that theMocov Indians had the cabrillas as creator and father,

but they did not worship it. He suggested that maybe itwas the only ancient hero of the nation. The Mocovsname for this asterism was according to Guevara-Groaperikie, human beings ancestor. Guevara affirmed

that the invisibility of the Pleiades was thought as anillness of their ancestor and it first visibility was like arecovery of it.Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 42-43) describedthe Abipn Indians celebration of the visibility of thePleiades in similar way as Guevara. Dobrizhoffer thought

that this practice was not properly a cult, and certainly itwas not inspired by Satan (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783],Vol. II, 53). He was interested in the origin of thispractice, because he did not find antecedents in theScriptures. He supposed that it would have an Inca origin,because he believed in their cultural superiority.The Pleiades cult among the Chaco Indians was a veryintriguing point during the Jesuits time. In fact, animportant editor of Guevara works, Pedro de Angelis, inhis 1836 index to the work of Ruy Diaz de Guzman (DazDe Guzmn 1969 [1612], 391-392), wrote about thismatter. He said that the Jesuits confused the cabrillasand Pleiades because the Pleiades never set and because

the astral cult did not correspond to these barbarianpeople. Pedro de Angelis affirmed that the Pleiades werea diffuse constellation only appropriate for theacademic astronomers curiosity. It is very interesting thefact that Pedro de Angelis accused the Jesuits of lack ofastronomic knowledge and simultaneously, he madeseveral mistakes. For example the affirmation that inChaco the Pleiades never set, also the name cabrillas itwas a correct name for the Pleiades in Spain (De Len2001, 400). The idea that astral cults did not correspondto barbarian peoples is still very frequent among somearchaeologists.

Conclusions

In this paper we proposed that it is only possible tounderstand the Jesuits vision about Chaco's skies if weput it in the context of the debates of that time about thenature of American societies and the evangelization.However, we have also showed that the Chaco caseanalysis helped us to understand these debates. This ismainly because the aboriginal Chaco groups were thoughtby the Europeans as the extreme social otherness. It isimportant to take into account that these texts werewritten mostly after the Jesuits expulsion and they hadan apologetic intent. Certainly, they sought to honor the

work of the Jesuits missionaries that is why sometimesthey tended to exaggerate the difficulties during themissionary task. Also they tried to present the aboriginalpeople as beings that, with the right guidance, could begood Christians and loyal individuals.

We also showed that the Jesuits used various models totry to understand the Chaco aboriginal groups and theircultural productions. The idea of demonic presence andindigenous shamans as ministers of Satan as someauthors suggested was not only the important matter.Notions linked to the noble savage conception also hadrelevance. In particular, many sources used the Chaco

Indians societies as a social critique to the Europeansociety and their manners. This is a continuation of theancient image of the homo silvestrys with roots in theclassical antiquity and the eremitic tradition. Moreover,

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some Jesuits sources used comparisons with classicalpaganism, emphasizing the ignorance of indigenousbeliefs rather than on its demonic character. In thisdirection they empathized that this Indians only had somecult of natural phenomena which was a less bad idolatrythan the worship of idols in Jos Acostas thought.

Another model observed in the sources is linked to theconception of the Indigenous societies as groups thatlived under the lies of tricksters shamans who were thereal force that made difficult the evangelization of theIndians.

When the Jesuits discussed the sky conceptions by theChaco Indians we found out that its focus on two mainissues. On the one hand, the attitudes of Indians about theextraordinary celestial events and the presages associatedwith them. The Jesuit interest in these issues is directlyrelated to the relevance they had in Europe in the sameperiod. In the other hand, the celestial phenomena also

become a source of concern to the Jesuits as a possibleobject of worship of the natives. Especially the sourcesreveal the Jesuit particular interest for indigenouscelebrations linked to the sky. The celebrations had acentral political role in Indian and European Baroquesocieties. In this events were generated links betweencosmology, affectivity, social order, and leadership. Forthis reason, a central concern for the Jesuits was thepotential to Christianize these events. Those events linkedto shamanism were too discouraged or prohibited. Thecelebrations comparable with Christian celebrations willbe promoted. The sources, although they were not writtenby the Indians, let us also note that not only the

missionaries made a resignification of ideas and practicesof the 'other'. Chaco Indians also did a creative process ofreinterpretation and appropriation of the Christian heavenfrom pre-Columbian logics and conceptions. Certainlythis process is given in a situation of inequality andoppression. But we must remember that the Chacomissions were small, unstable in time and very 'porous'institutions. We talk about 'porosity' because the Indianscame and went very easily from and to the missions, infact many times the natives used the missions only astemporary places of refuge and supply. Thischaracteristics makes very difficult think this missionsusing the Foucault model of 'total institutions'. The small

size of the Chaco missions and the lack of missionarieshave a great importance in the analysis of testimoniesabout Chaco skies. With this small number ofmissionaries, the individual characteristics of each ofthem have great importance. In particular we need to payattention to the very diverse astronomical knowledge ofthe Jesuits who worked in the Chaco. We need toconsider not only the academic European traditions oftheir time, but also the European popular astronomies.

A final remark is that many authors, from Jesuits of the18 th century to intellectuals in the 19 th century, saw assomething strange the interest of indigenous hunter-

gatherers by the motion of fuzzy groups of stars, like thePleiades. These preconceived ideas forced these authorsto assume foreign sources for certain indigenous practicesor to qualify them as erroneous reports of the chroniclers.

Taking into account the great importance of diffuse anddark asterisms in South America's astronomies these is avery important fact.

References

Acosta, J. d. 1954[1588]. De Promulgando Evangelio apudbarbaros sive de Procuranda Indorum Salute. Madrid,Biblioteca de Autores espaoles.Acosta, J. d. 1954[1590].Historia natural y moral de las Indias.Madrid, Atlas.Bez-Jorge, F. 2000. La satanizacin de las deidadesmesoamericanas (perversiones y fantasas en el imaginariocolonial). Revista Acadmica para el Estudio de las ReligionesTomo III: Ritos y Creencias del Nuevo Milenio, 19-40.de Len, L. 2001. Poesas completas: propias, imitaciones ytraducciones, Cuevas Garca, Cristobal (ed.). Madrid, Castalia.del Techo, N. 1673. Historia de la Provincia del Paraguay dela Compaa de Jess. Leodii.Daz de Guzmn, R. 1969 [1612]. Historia argentina deldescubrimiento, poblacin y conquista de las provincias del Ro

de La Plata, in De Angelis, P. (ed.), Coleccin de obras ydocumentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de laProvincias del Ro de La Plata. Ilustrados con Notas yDisertaciones por Pedro De Angelis [1836]. Con prlogo ynotas de Andrs M. Carretero, 27-488.Buenos Aires, EditorialPlus Ultra.Dobrizhoffer, M. 1967-69[1783]. Historia de los abipones.Resistencia, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Facultad deHumanidades, Departamento de Historia.Gruzinski, S. 2004. La colonizacin de lo imaginario.Sociedades indgenas y occidentalizacin en el Mxico Espaol,siglos XVI-XVIII. Mxico, Fondo de Cultura Econmica.Guevara, J. 1969[1764]. Historia del Paraguay, Ro de la Plata yTucumn, in De Angelis, P. (ed.), Coleccin de obras y

documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de laProvincias del Ro de La Plata. Ilustrados con Notas yDisertaciones por Pedro De Angelis [1836]. Con prlogo ynotas de Andrs M. Carretero, 499-830. 2 ed. Buenos Aires,Editorial Plus Ultra.Lpez, A. M. 2009.La Vrgen, el rbol y la Serpiente. Cielos eIdentidades en comunidades mocoves del Chaco.UnpublishedPhD thesis, Facultad de Filosofa y Letras, Universidad deBuenos Aires.Paucke, F. 1942-44[1749-1767]. Hacia all y para ac (unaestada entre los indios mocoves). Tucumn, Universidad deTucumn.Richard, N. 2006. El Sitio de Babel: La ofensiva jesuta sobre elChaco (s. XVIII). Anales de Desclasificacin 1, La derrota delrea cultural n2 831-846.Snchez, S. 2002. Demonologa en Indias. Idolatra y mmesisdiablica en la obra de Jos de Acosta. Revista Complutense deHistoria de Amrica 28, 9-34.Schofield Saeger, J. 1985. Another View of the Mission as aFrontier Institution: The Guaycuruan Reductions of Santa Fe,1743-1810. The Hispanic American Historical Review 65, 3493-517.Vitar, B. 2001. La evangelizacin del Chaco y el combatejesutico contra el demonio.Andes, 12 201-222.

Acknowledgements:

I am grateful to the executive committee of SEAC, to FernandoPimenta and the LOC of SEAC 2011. Also, I am thankful to the

Mocov and to PhD. student Agustina Altman for hercollaboration in the fieldwork and critical insights on drafts ofthis paper.

jesuitas y cielos del chaco

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