Estrategias indígenas y límites étnicos. Las reducciones jesuíticas del Paraguay como espacios socioculturales permeables

Abstract

It has been a common place in academic and non-academic Iiterature to speak of the famous Guarani Jesuit missions (1609-1768) asan autonomous space relatively closed and with a lack ofcontacts with the outside. This assumption left aside the analysis of sociocultural relations between indigenous peoples in the missions and diverse actors of the countryside, especially those called "indios infieles". This article presents evidence related to those sociocultural relations. I will try to demonstrate that the borders between Jesuit missions inside and outside space were more permeable as accepted by traditional Missions history. The Guarani established relations and mixed themselves with foreigners dissolving the rigid limits drawn by the colonial administration, thus defining a space of flexible and arnbiguous ethníc boundaries.