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Architects of Euro empire: How Jesuits re-shaped the inadequate to grandiose & sacred - Printable Version

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Architects of Euro empire: How Jesuits re-shaped the inadequate to grandiose & sacred - C C - Jan 26, 2020

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-jesuits-cultivated-the-idea-of-european-empire

EXCERPT (Ananya Chakravarti): . . . In the 16th and 17th centuries, European presence in, say, the backlands of Brazil or the shores of India did not much resemble the grandiose discourse of European empire. Missionaries, in particular, failed or found themselves thwarted all the time. Indigenous people proved uninterested in their message, often responding with hostility and violence or, at best, adapting Christian theology to their own ends. Imperial agents were less concerned with spreading Christianity than with securing and mollifying local allies in the name of the king – or even just to line their own pockets. Yet, despite repeated failures and disappointments, missionaries – and especially the Jesuits – built and passed on a blueprint of imperial thinking. Their schema of classifying the peoples of the world in civilisational hierarchies in which the European occupies the top echelon, and a sacralising, triumphant vision of empire, remains with us today. It is not a way of thinking that calls attention to either the violence or the many failures of European empire.

How did this gap between the reality of empire and its grandiose discourse emerge? One answer lies in the way that missionaries communicated with Europe about their experience. Ignatius of Loyola implored missionaries to write only of success in public letters known as cartas particulares. These letters, full of edifying stories of pious indigenous converts and the rewarding labour of missionary work, circulated widely, particularly among elites. Europeans read only of the supposed triumphs of imperial evangelism. But the frustrations and failures of imperial experience were legion. Among themselves, Jesuits complained, discussed and strategised over them constantly. These private conversations in hijuelas, or private letters, circulated only within the order, not for public eyes.

[...] The European schema of human cultures emerged from the structure of the Society of Jesus. It was a tightly knit, diasporic order emphasising written communication between its members. Jesuit missionaries shared the knowledge they gained in the mission, including practical strategies for engaging indigenous peoples, and circulated it to members throughout the world. The flow of information around the globe helped Acosta develop his hierarchy of peoples, and gave him additional motive to do so.

The underlying idea of the Jesuit endeavour of classification was that peoples could be organised into a cultural hierarchy with the European, as fully human, at the top. This basic project remains one of the most pernicious legacies of empire, surviving well past the era of colonial rule itself. The knowledge that Jesuits gained from missions helped to shape the logic of global empire. The gap between what the order presented to its European audience and what it kept to itself was significant – and helped to maintain the fiction of this schema. Acosta’s hierarchy of peoples was widely circulated and taught; Anchieta’s Tupí writings, in which one hears echoes of the rich poetry of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, were not.

The gap between the reality of the colonies and the European perception could grate upon missionaries... (MORE - details)