Of the indifference between temporal and eternal indigenous elites, textual culture and memory in the South American borderlands

Abstract

In this article we analyze the indigenous textual culture of the Jesuit-Guarani missions and explore the applicability of a distinction — established in the literature of linguistics — between ‘temporal’ (secular) and ‘eternal’ (religious) writings. First, we propose a typology of missionary textual culture based on the different spaces used by the indigenous elite such as the cabildo and confraternities. Second, we analyze three groups of sources: spiritual literature in the Guarani language, letters from municipal authorities in the reducciones, and historical texts produced by indigenous people or in the Guarani language. Third, we emphasize that this confluence between ‘temporal’ and ‘eternal’ aspects becomes stronger both as a device for reinforcing historical missionary continuity and promoting the constitution of an indigenous memory. We show that the distinction between ‘temporal’ and ‘eternal’ writings is simplistic and that the sources analyzed point to a condensation of both dimensions in order to shape a model of virtuous person and of civility that is both political and religious.