What is Jesuit Reductions?

Related article: Indian Reductions

The Jesuit Reductions were a particular version of the general Spanish colonial strategy of building reductions (reducciones de indios) in order to "civilise" and catechise the native populations of South America.^[1] They were created by the Catholic order of the Jesuits in the Tupi-Guarani areas of Portuguese Brazil and Spanish America and became famous for their resistance to enslavement and the absolute dominion of Crown representatives, which led to their ultimate expulsion from the Portuguese Empire.^[2]

History

In Brazilian reductions, the Tupí-Guaraní languages were spoken, leading to the língua geral which was a single consolidated dialect of Tupi-Guarani with Latin and Portuguese influence that was once the sole language of the Portuguese settlements outside of the centers of Crown power, and is still spoken in isolated communities in Northern Brazil.

The indigenous people of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the Tupi and the Guaraní, would have been victims of the colonial conquest in South America, had the Jesuits not been able to persuade the King of Spain to grant that vast region to their care. Having first landed in South America in 1550, the Jesuits promised the Spanish monarch generous rewards, in the form of tributes, in exchange for exempting the Indians from hard labour to which all the other tribes were subjected.

For about 150 years, the Jesuits protected the Guaraní from the raids of the slave-hunters from Portugal and Spain. They founded several missions or reductions and developed a kind of evangelisation that was possibly unique in Christian history. Putting into practice the precepts of the Gospel through this bold experiment, they limited the influences of the Europeans on the Guaraní.^[3]

The Reductions were established over a vast area which today covers part of Argentina, Paraguay, southern Brazil and Uruguay. The first settlement was founded in 1609. Many other missions were established along the rivers, in the Gran Chaco, Guaira and Paraná territories.

With input from the Jesuits, the Guaraní framed egalitarian laws. They founded free public services for the poor, public schools, and hospitals, and abolished the death penalty. A society based on the principles of primitive Christianity was established. The inhabitants of the Reductions worked communal land, and all the products they produced were distributed fairly among them.

The Guaraní were very skilled in handicraft works such as sculpture and woodcarving. The working day was about six hours, compared with 12–14 hours in Europe at that time. Complex products such as clocks and musical instruments were produced in the Reductions. Free time was dedicated to music, dance, archery contests, and to prayer. The Guaraní society was possibly the first in history to be entirely literate.

The Jesuit missions reached their peak in the first half of the 18th century, with between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholic Indians in about thirty missions. They assumed almost full independence from the parts of South America ruled by Spain and Portugal, and were centres of community life.

In a Reduction, the main buildings, like the church, college and churchyard were concentrated around a wide square, with houses facing the other three sides. Each village also provided a house for widows, a hospital, and several warehouses. In the centre of the square, there was a cross and a statue of the mission's patron saint.

The missions ended with the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese empire in 1759, and from the Spanish Empire in 1767. The Guarani returned to the forest. All that remains today from that period are ruins of some of the Reductions, and two modified indigenous languages, Guarani and Nheengatu.

Jesuit Reductions by country

Argentina

• San Ignacio Mini in Misiones Province
• Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana in Misiones Province
• Nuestra Señora de Loreto in Misiones Province
• Santa María la Mayor in Misiones Province
• Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba in Córdoba

Brazil

• São Miguel das Missões

Paraguay

• La Santisima Trinidad de Paraná

See also

• Bandeirantes
• Guarani War
• The Mission, a 1986 film that tells the story of a Spanish Jesuit priest who goes into the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a community of Guaraní Indians
• Jesuit Asia missions
• Língua Geral
• Spanish missions in Arizona
• Spanish missions in California
• Spanish missions in the Carolinas
• Spanish missions in Florida
• Spanish missions in Georgia
• Spanish missions in Mexico
• Spanish missions in New Mexico
• Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert
• Spanish missions in South America
• Spanish missions in Texas
• Spanish missions in Trinidad
• Spanish missions in Virginia
• Suppression of the Society of Jesus

External links

• In-depth 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Reductions

References