202557(en)/19 - Baptism and Poison: Interaction and Production of Knowledge in the Jesuit Missions of the Colonial American Jungle
BAPTISM AND POISON: INTERACTION AND PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE JESUIT MISSIONS OF THE COLONIAL AMERICAN JUNGLE
BAUTISMO Y VENENO. INTERACCIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN DEL CONOCIMIENTO EN LAS MISIONES JESUITAS DE LA SELVA COLONIAL AMERICANA
Alan Rodríguez-Valdivia, Carlos Piñones-Rivera y Wilson Muñoz-Henríquez
This article examines the interaction and production of knowledge among Jesuits, travelers (naturalists, scientific explorers), and local peoples in the missions of Maynas and Orinoco, and, the Jesuit expulsion in 1767, from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. The analysis is based on the interpretation of two concepts: baptism and poison. The historical account develops through the asymmetrical interactions of these three historical agents, interpreting and interweaving Jesuits’ and travelers’ accounts from chronicles and travel diaries regarding local practices and their own experimentation with baptism and poison. Through the lens of these concepts, the article highlights not only the key role that local peoples played in the production of religious and scientific knowledge in the missions, but also the intermediary capacity of Jesuit missionaries to record and produce this complex and controversial knowledge.
