Civilizing Mission And Colonial Resistance: The Subject’s Dichotomy In The Espiritual Conquest (1969) By Antônio Ruiz De Montoya

Abstract

Parallel to the territorial colonization in America, not only by the Portuguese but also by the Spanish, the evangelization carried by priests of Jesus Society, also had a sense of religious colonization. According to the adopted system, aiming a better efficiency, it is sure that the Jesuits had an irresistible influence over the Amerindians populations, which would not have the same result if used by arms like the attempt of the Spanish and Portuguese settlers. The strategy aimed at convincing through persuasion that the priest just wanted to make good actions and that they preached with words but also with works in a spiritual sense. Through this persuasion, the Amerindians were submitted, “reduced” and then “changed” into its individual essence, becoming divided between the colonial and the colonized. This dichotomy led the Amerindian to reactions against the colonizer in search of getting back their subjectivity, so this is the purpose of the present analysis.