Missionary entradas and identity formation in Amazonia: the Jesuit missions of Maynas, c. 1638-1767

Abstract

This article examines the role of missionary entradas in the region of Maynas in relations between the diverse ethnic groups involved. The Maynas missions were established among the Indians who lived in the western fringes of Amazonia, specifically in the valleys of the Marañón, Napo, and Amazon rivers. The Company of Jesus was active in the region between 1638 and 1767. Missionary entradas were military expeditions that sought to attract Indians from the environs to live on reductions, either through force or persuasion. A common practice in other areas of Jesuit activity, in Maynas entradas occurred with an unprecedented frequency until the eve of Jesuit expulsion. These expeditions served both the missionaries’ goals of expansion and territorial consolidation as well as those of indigenous contingencies of increasing their human resources in the wake of increased interethnic rivalry. Nevertheless, as I seek to demonstrate for the Amazonian case, indigenous realities subsumed missionaries’ designs. Successive entradas attempted to place groups that did not accept living together in the same village; as a result, the number of reductions grew much larger than the capacity of the Jesuits to attend them. This was a cyclic process, as the formation of new villages with few residents impelled further missionary entradas to balance and make the province uniform.