Jesuit Missions (Reductions) of Spanish South America in the Context of the Cultural Symbiosis Problem

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of cultural interrelations between American Indians and Europeans, taking Jesuit missions of Spanish South America as an example. Unlike other colonization models that aimed, whether deliberately or not, at enslaving or exterminating native populations, Jesuit missions may be giving us a rather unique case of cultural coexistence, which was shaped through inculturation, even though the objectives of Indians and missionaries were quite different.