Sunday, January 4, 2009
East Ballroom Foyer (Hilton New York)
I offer to present a poster on the theories and practices of land holding and slavery of the first Jesuits in Brazil. Upon their arrival in Bahia in 1549, the Jesuits engaged in both a theoretical and practical struggle against the Portuguese colonists for both the land and people of Brazil. The link between possessing dominion over both land and people was exemplified in the Indians being called “the blacks of the land.” In the Portuguese context the term “black” implied servility and the reference to “land” entailed the possibility of treating the Indians as property that would be analogous to land. The Jesuits responded to the challenge posed by this language and the slave-raiding colonists with the concept of the Jesuit village, an aldeia. In addition to the ultimate aim of converting the Indians into Christianity, the polities were to serve as the basis for an indigenous peasant society, thus preventing the seizure of both the land and its people by colonists. Even if the Jesuit attempt to create a viable form of political organization based on indigenous land possession was to largely fail, the Fathers did manage to retain the ability to rent Indians to work as wage-laborers and not as slaves on the plantations of the colonists.
I would present my research on the Jesuit attempt to mold indigenous Brazilians into Christian agriculturalists with references to both Jesuit writings from Brazil and the first histories of Brazil. My posters would consist of extracts from important written documents and early images of aldeias, the Jesuit missions for civilizing the Amerindians of Brazil. A poster session would provide a perfect setting for a closer reading of the texts, in which the Jesuit Fathers present their thought on the fate of the people and land of Brazil.
My overall project is to incorporate Portuguese angles into the study of European political thought on empire, I would also like to mention the way in which the Portuguese colonial experience appears in the writings of Luis de Molina and other Jesuits based in Europe. Through the writings of eminent political thinkers the theories and practices of the first New World Jesuits were available to other Europeans, who were either in the process of acquiring their own colonies or about to commence such an enterprise.
I would present my research on the Jesuit attempt to mold indigenous Brazilians into Christian agriculturalists with references to both Jesuit writings from Brazil and the first histories of Brazil. My posters would consist of extracts from important written documents and early images of aldeias, the Jesuit missions for civilizing the Amerindians of Brazil. A poster session would provide a perfect setting for a closer reading of the texts, in which the Jesuit Fathers present their thought on the fate of the people and land of Brazil.
My overall project is to incorporate Portuguese angles into the study of European political thought on empire, I would also like to mention the way in which the Portuguese colonial experience appears in the writings of Luis de Molina and other Jesuits based in Europe. Through the writings of eminent political thinkers the theories and practices of the first New World Jesuits were available to other Europeans, who were either in the process of acquiring their own colonies or about to commence such an enterprise.