The Missions system at stake: The cotiguazú as a sympton of the jesuits- guaranis reductions crisis

• Autor(a) principal: Imolesi, María Elena
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Anos 90 (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/anos90/article/view/24010
• topic: women – missions – ethnogenesis – borders - jesuits; Misiones jesuitas; Mujeres; Etnogénesis; Fronteras; Historia; Antropología; Procesos colonizadores; Jesuitas; Guaraníes

This paper aims at exploring the cotiguazú, an area of seclusion for women in the jesuits - guarani reductions. Many women of different backgrounds (widows, orphan girls, women whose men had run away as well as women brought by the missionaries from areas inhabited by not christianized indians or “infieles”) were gathered in this space since the XVIII century. In contrast to the few references about the cotiguazu in the  jesuits public documents, the private correspondence offers detailed information about the regulations regarding this space. The issues about the cotiguazu were of great concern since the increasing number of women secluded there, indicates the desintegration of the family institution. This evidence shows an opposite tendency to what was desired in the missional space. This investigation tries to explore the growing tensions within the missions during the XVIII century as a result of the unstable  dynamics of the portuguese-spanish -indian border. These were causing the scattering, reconstruction and ethnogenesis that the supposedly isolated missions were trying to deny.