F. PIMENTA, N. RIBEIRO, F. SILVA, N. CAMPION, A. JOAQUINITO, L. TIRAPICOS (EDS.

): STARS AND STONES

GODS, DEMONS AND DECEIVERS: JESUITS FACING CHACO SKIES

ALEJANDRO MARTN LPEZ
Abstract: The Jesuits missions located in the Chaco are less known than the ones in Paraguay. They are the last step of the Jesuit's missionary device in the Rio de la Plata region. They were dedicated to 'evangelize' and 'civilize' the aboriginal groups considered more hostile: nomadic huntergatherers who adopted the use of horses and were not controlled by the colonial government. These groups were seen by Europeans as a radical otherness. That is why, the Jesuits descriptions of Chaco Indians skies are a very interesting example about the European attitudes toward other worldviews. This paper explores the use of different paradigms for interpreting these alternative skies: demonic influence, the deception of sorcerers and an Evemeristic reading of the indigenous worldview. This article also addresses some of the interactions between the aboriginal and Christian skies in the mission context. Keywords: South America, Jesuits, Chaco, Religion, Missions, demons

Introduction During the 18th century, the Jesuits established a series of missions in what nowadays is the Argentine Chaco, such as San Javier in 1743, San Jernimo del Rey in 1748, San Ignacio de Ledesma 1756, San Pedro in 1764, Jesus of Nazareth Inspn in 1766. This missions are less known that the ones among the Guaran and also had a shorter duration. However, they were extremely important because they were located at a border area, which was thought by the Europeans and creoles as a wild and unknown region, inhabited by savage Indians. In this context, several Jesuits who settled in this region produced texts that described their experiences. In them, they discussed sky conceptions of the aboriginal groups that lived in Chaco region. These reports were made in the context of the evangelization mission. Jesuits opinions about the aboriginal celestial space were not only mediated by Christian ideas about heaven but also, by the baroque view of the Greco-Roman conceptions of the sky. Moreover, these texts were mostly written after the Jesuits expulsion and for this reason they had an apologetic intention. That is why, they tried to honor the Jesuits missionaries work, which sometimes leaded them to exaggerate the difficulties of the missionary task. Also they tried to present the aboriginal people as beings that, with the right guidance, could be good Christians and loyal individuals. This intent also influenced the ways they used to present the aboriginal conceptions about the sky. Framed by these tensions, the Chaco skies descriptions made by the Jesuits range from the Evemeristic opinion that the aboriginal skies were populated by old and heroic ancestors, to the idea that it was the devil who these groups worshiped in the stars. Halfway between these positions, we can locate the argument of the sorcerers as deceivers, which is widely used in the context of the struggle against shamanism. Chaco missions The Great Chaco is located in central South America. Partially covers the south of Bolivia, Paraguay and NW Argentina. It is a sedimentary plain covered with subtropical savannas. The Chaco was constructed by the colonial European discourse as a land of Indians. Inhospitable and hostile territories dominated by the presence of hunter-gatherers opposed to civilization. Also, it was thought as a marginal area to be eliminated, a

refuge for those Creole and Europeans who were outside the law and a region where land was wasted. Aboriginal groups which belong to the Guaycur linguistic group (as for example Mocoves, Tobas, Abipones, Pilags, Payagus, Caduveos and Mbays) were thought as the prototypical example of the unfaithful Indian and an enemy of progress. Following Richard (2006) we can say that during the 17th century the 'Jesuit missionary machinery' was devoted to indigenous farming groups, the 'foot Indians'. Three main regions formed this missionary dispositive: the Guaran missions in the Paraguay's jungles in the NE of the Chaco region -with 130 000 people and around 30 missions in its splendor-; the missions in Chiquitanas plains, in the NW of the Chaco -about 25,000 people in 10 missions-; and the Lules, Vilelas and Matars missions in the Andean foothills, near the towns and colonial ranches, in the W of the Chaco. The Chaco was located in the middle of these three cores. Its savannas, with equestrian, bellicose, hunter-gatherers Indians were thought as an inaccessible area. Only during the 18th century, when the economic apparatus of the 'agriculture' missions was consolidated, the Jesuits were able to take by assault the Chaco. Over 50 years some 25 missions were founded the total number of reduced Indians are no more than 2300 (Schofield Saeger 1985)-, generally of short duration. The resources of agricultural missions were essential to support the Chaco missions, designed as part of a regional strategic device. The Chaco groups organized in small bands had complex relationships with the colonial society. They were politically independent from the colonial government. However, many types of exchanges between these aboriginal groups and the Creole and European population existed: colonial military actions against Chaco groups; violent capture of aboriginal people for obligatory works in colonial settlements; armed raids of Chaco aboriginal groups against colonial cities; and also commercial exchanges between the colonial frontiers and the aboriginal groups especially cattle, horses, feathers, animal skins, honey, weapons, iron instruments, etc.-. In this context in the year 1749, two important Jesuit missionaries arrived to South America: Florian Paucke from Silesia -at that time part of Austria- and Martin Dobrizhoffer from Friedberg -Germany-. Paucke worked in missions for Mocov aboriginal people in the Chaco

ALEJANDRO M., LPEZ: SHAKING EDEN: VOYAGES, BODIES AND CHANGE IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SOUTH
AMERICAN SKIES

region from 1752 to 1767. Dobrizhoffer worked in missions for Mocov, Guaran and Abipn aboriginal people from 1750 to 1767. In 1767 all Jesuits were expelled from the Spaniard domains. Before the expulsion, Paucke and Dobrizhoffer wrote important works about the Chaco missions (Dobrizhoffer 196769[1783]; Paucke 1942-44[1749-1767]). In fact, Dobrizhoffers work had a great relevance at that time in the configuration of European imagination about South American people. Both texts are key sources about life in Chaco missions and the role of the skies in the interaction between missionaries and aboriginal people. In many societies the celestial space is link with the notion of power and conceptions about the proper social order. Cosmology is frequently in close relationship with politics because its importance in the legitimation of the social order. For this reason, the sky is a place of struggles for the meaning. The Chaco skies are a very good example of this. Jos de Acosta: Indians, Skies and Gods The Jesuits missioner action occurred at the same time of the Catholic Reform which involved a strengthening of demonology, specially in the context of the cultural atmosphere of the Spaniard Baroque (Bez-Jorge 2000; Vitar 2001, 1-3). However, we think that the demonization is not the unique model in the Jesuits conception about American societies and also it is important to distinguish different levels of use of the demoniac language and metaphors. In this direction we think that the use of the adjective demoniac to qualify any perturbation of the Jesuits work (Vitar 2001, 3 and 5-6) is a clue to consider differential uses of the demoniac language. Also we need to remember that the Society of Jesus it is not a Spanish institution. Their international character it is very relevant to analyze the model used by the missionaries to think American societies. Specially, many of the Jesuits that worked in Chaco were from central Europe. The work of the Jesuit Jos de Acosta on Indian ideas about demons, divinity and skies (Acosta 1954[1590]) are central to understand the Jesuits opinions about the Chaco skies. One central point of Acostas ideas were the attempts of separation of the natural and supernatural matters in the treatment of indigenous questions. About the nature of the American people Acosta supported the idea of the natural goodness of the Indians. He compared the aboriginal civilization cultures (specially the sedentary Indians) with the classic Greco-roman ones. He argued that as a result it could not be entirely the devils work (Snchez 2002, 18). However, as Snchez (2002, 18) pointed out, when Acosta discussed the indigenous cults he had a different opinion. In supernatural matters he did not hesitated in qualifying indigenous practices as diabolic. The similarities between some indigenous and Christian practices were not viewed as testimonies of Gods presence in America but as a diabolic mimic of Gods work. Acosta explicitly mentioned that the idolatry was an invention of the Devil who was trying to take 2

Gods place. In this direction Acosta talked about what now we would call sacred specialists in terms of ministers of Satan (Acosta 1954[1590], L. V, Cap. XIV). The classic ancient European civilizations and the American aboriginal groups were both deceived by the Devil. In fact, the term idolatry was introduce by Bartolom de las Casas to understand American religions as part of the ancient European religions Greek, Roman, Caldean- (Snchez 2002, 19-20). This identification had important consequences. Since Renaissance, with roots in the origin of Christian reflection, an important tendency to think classical European myths as material for philosophical reflection and artistic creation grew. For that reason, these myths were not seen as a real threat to the Christian faith. The assimilation of American believes with the European myths helped to create opportunities for its legitimation. In fact, as Gruzinski (2004) noted, the use of classical models was a widely used procedure in colonial America to deal with American cosmovisions. The statements of classic authors -like Ovid, Lucan, Virgil, Cicero, etc- that Dobrizhoffer used when he discussed about the Chaco sky are a proof of that. Snchez also mentioned another important matter for our present work: Acosta (1954[1590], L. V, Cap. IX) made an important distinction between two idolatry genres. One of them was the worship of creatures and `natural phenomena, the other was the cult of idols made by men. Due to the biblical attitudes about idols, especially in the Ancient Testament, Acosta considered that the cult of creatures and `natural phenomena was less bad than the other. Interestingly Acosta (1954[1588], Cap. IX, 259) pointed out that the less developed groups were the less idolaters. Also he thought that in these first groups the evangelization was more difficult. Chaco Indians: between Satan and Ignorance In Chaco region we can see the influence of this discussion. Vitar (2001) talked about the use of the demon figure in the Jesuits Chaco evangelization. She insists in the central role of this element, but we think the situation is more complex. These aboriginal people were viewed alternatively as Satan pupils and atheistic barbarians. For example, Dobrizhoffer argued that his use of classical examples in his book about Abipn Indians were not for stylistic questions. He used this quotations to show that Abipons manners and believes were usual in ancient times (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Volumen I, Prefacio al lector, 47). Paucke, Jesuit partner of Dobrizhoffer, and from a close Europe region, compared the Chaco Indian not with Greeks or Romans but with the ancient pagan Germans, specially when he referred to the devils cult in the woods (Paucke 1942-44[17491767], Vol. II, 257). Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 52) and Paucke (1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 247) compared the Indian believes with the popular believes of the Christian Europe. In fact, Dobrizhoffer explicitly said : I never had the slightest doubt that they [the Indian shamans] could not know or do anything that exceeded human strength (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 48).

F. PIMENTA, N. RIBEIRO, F. SILVA, N. CAMPION, A. JOAQUINITO, L. TIRAPICOS (EDS.): STARS AND STONES powerful beings with demons. In this sense we have strange expressions as the Abipones boast of been grandchildren of a demon, like the primitive Gallus told they were their children (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], vol. II, 75). It is very interesting for our work a conversation between Dobrizhoffer and the Abipon chief Ycholay, that the Jesuit extensively transcribed (Dobrizhoffer 196769[1783], Volumen II, Captulo VIII, 71-73). During a trip at night, Dobrizhoffer pointed to Ycholay the clear sky and said to him: You dont see heavens majesty, I said, and this order, and this great star party? Who or what would think this is fortuitous? []It is not strange that so many beauties of the sky exist only by chance? Don't you think it would be very strange too that these racings and revolutions of the Celestial Orb would be rule without the reason of a very wise mind in opposition to the many peoples thought? Dobrizhoffer said that Ycholay affirmed that they only look around to search for resources but not to look for the ruler of the stars. This interesting passage shows us that for the Jesuits the skys order is an important natural argument for the Christian god. And for this reason the ideas about the sky are fundamental in the evangelization process. Another important matter is the Jesuits blindness about the particular aboriginal forms of sky conceptualization. The analysis of ethnohistorical and ethnological work (Lpez 2009), show as the important links between the structure of Chaco Indian skies and their conceptions about the supernatural owners of animals, vegetal and other resources. Chaco Skies Descriptions One of the first Jesuit chroniclers about Chaco Indians, Jos Guevara, wrote a famous passage about the Mocov Indians sky and their relationship with the post-mortem life: The mocobes faked a tree that they called nalliagdigua in their language, of height so unlimited that it went from the earth to the sky. For them, from branch to branch gaining more elevation the souls went up to fish in a river (Guevara 1969[1764], 559). In this direction it is very interesting to pay attention to the discussions about the Christian Heaven and the access to this place. The Jesuits banned the traditional mortuary practices (Del Techo 1673, T. V, L. XIII, Cap. V) that they considered superstitions, diabolic practices or tricks of the sorcerers (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783] Vol. II, p. 52; Paucke 1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 252). The Jesuits insisted on the power of baptism to purify the hearts including the heart of shamans, and to open the gates of the Christian Heaven. The Jesuits Christian Heaven was close to the not baptized Indians. The narration of a dream from an Indian woman (Del Techo 1673, T. IV, L. XI, Cap. I) tell us about this battle of imaginaries. The Indian saw the Celestial Jerusalem in a

The jesuit Nicols del Techo, Father Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Paraguay, wrote a history of the Paracuarian Province (Del Techo 1673). In his work he transcribed testimonies of several Jesuits that worked in the Chaco region. In his text we can read about the difficulties in evangelizing the Chaco Indians due to their relationships with demons. A testimony of the Jesuits Barcena y Aasco in the decade of 1590- talked about the familiarity between the Indians and the demons. According to both Jesuits the demons were working with the Indians in their spells and the Indians called them whistling. The text pointed that the Indians hated the Spaniards because their opposition to idolatry (Del Techo 1673, T. I, L. I, Cap. XLIV). In another part of the text, it was stressed the use of whistles and gestures by old women sorcerers in order to communicate with demons (Del Techo 1673, T.V, L. XIII, Cap. VI). Paucke (1942-44[1749-1767], Vol. II, 249) also talked about the Indian sorcerers as deceivers and liars as other Jesuits like Guevara (Guevara 1969[1764], 545) or Dobrizhoffer (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 52). However, he made mentions about the Indian sorcerers view about Jesuits. The Indians thought their relationship with missionaries as a battle of supernatural power. The Holy Spirit was matched to a shamanic auxiliary. Paucke described shamans attempt to make an alliance with the Holy Spirit to exclude the Jesuit from Heaven. Another important testimony from this text, (Del Techo 1673, T. IV, L. XI, Cap. I) from the year 1634 and attributed to the Jesuits Andrs Valera and Pedro Martnez simultaneously referred to the superstition and satanic sacrifices of the Indians and their atheism. This kind of expressions was very frequent in the Jesuits discourses about the Chaco Indian. The references about atheism points out the fact that the Jesuits did not find words that they could relate to the concept of the Christian god. This supposed atheism was also related to the difficulties that the missionaries had to explain the Christian doctrine about the souls immortality to this Indians. The last it is due to the fact that the missionaries did not understand the Indians ideas about body, self and person. Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Volumen II, Captulo VIII, 71-73) discussed the Abipn Indians atheism. He mentioned several testimonies from Portuguese and Spaniard chroniclers about the absence of divine knowledge among the American barbarian people. He cited, as another proof of this, the Apostolic Bull issued by Pius V on April 29 of 1568, which spoke about those barbarous nations [] did not know God intimately. Dobrizhoffer attributed this lack to their limited understanding' and their lazy reasoning. He said that the Abipn ignored God and named Aharaigichi the bad spirit and Groaperikie their grandparent or ancestor (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 42). Other authors (Vitar 2001, 12-13) empathize the fact that the Jesuits and also the Indians of the missions identified the shamanic

ALEJANDRO M., LPEZ: SHAKING EDEN: VOYAGES, BODIES AND CHANGE IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SOUTH
AMERICAN SKIES

dream, lighting with a golden bright that in shamanic experience is a sign of power- but she was expelled from that place for not knowing the catholic faith. However, many Indians interpreted the power of the Christian rites in other ways, like new forms of shamanic power (Del Techo 1673, T. II, L. V, Cap. IX). In the Jesuits description of Chaco Indian believes the sky has a central place. In one hand, we need to take into account the importance of the predictions based on unusual astronomical phenomena in Europe during that time. The Jesuit order itself made this kind of predictions (Vitar 2001, fotnote 22 ). Many Jesuits mentioned the Chaco Indian attitudes when extraordinary celestial events occurred. For example, Dobrizhoffer (196769[1783], Vol. II, 50) talked about the fact that this aboriginal people made noise when a lunar or solar eclipse took place. Also he mentioned (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 52) that the Abipn remembered a very bright star that appeared some time ago and was followed by a very bad year. In addition, this Jesuit (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 47) mentioned the importance of meteorites for the aboriginal Chaco people as signs of changes in weather or the death of important shamans. Other Jesuits talked about warlike demonstrations to intimidate storms (Del Techo 1673, T. III, L. VII, Cap. VIII). On the other hand, the idolatry of natural phenomena attributed to the Chaco Indians was mostly centered on celestial manifestations. A very interesting description from the Jesuit Romero in the decade of 1610- said that the moon and the chariot of Bootes were the Chaco Indians divinities. Also he said that voices and jumps at new moon were their most important festivity (Del Techo 1673, T. II, L. IV, Cap. XVI). Another reference to this festivities referred to the importance of drinking (Del Techo 1673, Tomo segundo, Libro quinto, Cap. XVIII). We need to be very careful with the Jesuit astronomical references. For example, the evidence suggests that we need to understand the first visibility of the moon when the Jesuits sources talked about the new moon. In particular, the reference to Bootes is very estrange because in another part of the text (Del Techo 1673, T. III, L. VII, Cap. VIII) refers that the Indian festivity was associated to the first visibility of Ursa Minor, constellation that is not visible from Chaco. However, the mention is also stranger because important Jesuits sources mentioned a different asterism associated with this celebration: the Pleiades or cabrillas. Guevara (1969[1764], 544) talked about the noise that the Mocov Indians made during their celebrations of the first visibility of the Pleiades, the new moon and the whirlwinds. Also he said that during the Pleiades celebrations, shamans initiations took place. For this reason, the missioners banned this practice. Guevara referred extensively about the Pleiades. He said that the Mocov Indians had the cabrillas as creator and father, but they did not worship it. He suggested that maybe it was the only ancient hero of the nation. The Mocovs name for this asterism was according to GuevaraGroaperikie, human beings ancestor. Guevara affirmed 4

that the invisibility of the Pleiades was thought as an illness of their ancestor and it first visibility was like a recovery of it. Dobrizhoffer (1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 42-43) described the Abipn Indians celebration of the visibility of the Pleiades in similar way as Guevara. Dobrizhoffer thought that this practice was not properly a cult, and certainly it was not inspired by Satan (Dobrizhoffer 1967-69[1783], Vol. II, 53). He was interested in the origin of this practice, because he did not find antecedents in the Scriptures. He supposed that it would have an Inca origin, because he believed in their cultural superiority. The Pleiades cult among the Chaco Indians was a very intriguing point during the Jesuits time. In fact, an important editor of Guevara works, Pedro de Angelis, in his 1836 index to the work of Ruy Diaz de Guzman (Daz De Guzmn 1969 [1612], 391-392), wrote about this matter. He said that the Jesuits confused the cabrillas and Pleiades because the Pleiades never set and because the astral cult did not correspond to these barbarian people. Pedro de Angelis affirmed that the Pleiades were a diffuse constellation only appropriate for the academic astronomers curiosity. It is very interesting the fact that Pedro de Angelis accused the Jesuits of lack of astronomic knowledge and simultaneously, he made several mistakes. For example the affirmation that in Chaco the Pleiades never set, also the name cabrillas it was a correct name for the Pleiades in Spain (De Len 2001, 400). The idea that astral cults did not correspond to barbarian peoples is still very frequent among some archaeologists. Conclusions In this paper we proposed that it is only possible to understand the Jesuits vision about Chaco's skies if we put it in the context of the debates of that time about the nature of American societies and the evangelization. However, we have also showed that the Chaco case analysis helped us to understand these debates. This is mainly because the aboriginal Chaco groups were thought by the Europeans as the extreme social otherness. It is important to take into account that these texts were written mostly after the Jesuits expulsion and they had an apologetic intent. Certainly, they sought to honor the work of the Jesuits missionaries that is why sometimes they tended to exaggerate the difficulties during the missionary task. Also they tried to present the aboriginal people as beings that, with the right guidance, could be good Christians and loyal individuals. We also showed that the Jesuits used various models to try to understand the Chaco aboriginal groups and their cultural productions. The idea of demonic presence and indigenous shamans as ministers of Satan as some authors suggested was not only the important matter. Notions linked to the noble savage conception also had relevance. In particular, many sources used the Chaco Indians societies as a social critique to the European society and their manners. This is a continuation of the ancient image of the homo silvestrys with roots in the classical antiquity and the eremitic tradition. Moreover,

F. PIMENTA, N. RIBEIRO, F. SILVA, N. CAMPION, A. JOAQUINITO, L. TIRAPICOS (EDS.): STARS AND STONES some Jesuits sources used comparisons with classical paganism, emphasizing the ignorance of indigenous beliefs rather than on its demonic character. In this direction they empathized that this Indians only had some cult of natural phenomena which was a less bad idolatry than the worship of idols in Jos Acostas thought. Another model observed in the sources is linked to the conception of the Indigenous societies as groups that lived under the lies of tricksters shamans who were the real force that made difficult the evangelization of the Indians. When the Jesuits discussed the sky conceptions by the Chaco Indians we found out that its focus on two main issues. On the one hand, the attitudes of Indians about the extraordinary celestial events and the presages associated with them. The Jesuit interest in these issues is directly related to the relevance they had in Europe in the same period. In the other hand, the celestial phenomena also become a source of concern to the Jesuits as a possible object of worship of the natives. Especially the sources reveal the Jesuit particular interest for indigenous celebrations linked to the sky. The celebrations had a central political role in Indian and European Baroque societies. In this events were generated links between cosmology, affectivity, social order, and leadership. For this reason, a central concern for the Jesuits was the potential to Christianize these events. Those events linked to shamanism were too discouraged or prohibited. The celebrations comparable with Christian celebrations will be promoted. The sources, although they were not written by the Indians, let us also note that not only the missionaries made a resignification of ideas and practices of the 'other'. Chaco Indians also did a creative process of reinterpretation and appropriation of the Christian heaven from pre-Columbian logics and conceptions. Certainly this process is given in a situation of inequality and oppression. But we must remember that the Chaco missions were small, unstable in time and very 'porous' institutions. We talk about 'porosity' because the Indians came and went very easily from and to the missions, in fact many times the natives used the missions only as temporary places of refuge and supply. This characteristics makes very difficult think this missions using the Foucault model of 'total institutions'. The small size of the Chaco missions and the lack of missionaries have a great importance in the analysis of testimonies about Chaco skies. With this small number of missionaries, the individual characteristics of each of them have great importance. In particular we need to pay attention to the very diverse astronomical knowledge of the Jesuits who worked in the Chaco. We need to consider not only the academic European traditions of their time, but also the European popular astronomies. A final remark is that many authors, from Jesuits of the 18 th century to intellectuals in the 19 th century, saw as something strange the interest of indigenous huntergatherers by the motion of fuzzy groups of stars, like the Pleiades. These preconceived ideas forced these authors to assume foreign sources for certain indigenous practices or to qualify them as erroneous reports of the chroniclers. Taking into account the great importance of diffuse and dark asterisms in South America's astronomies these is a very important fact. References
Acosta, J. d. 1954[1588]. De Promulgando Evangelio apud barbaros sive de Procuranda Indorum Salute. Madrid, Biblioteca de Autores espaoles. Acosta, J. d. 1954[1590]. Historia natural y moral de las Indias. Madrid, Atlas. Bez-Jorge, F. 2000. La satanizacin de las deidades mesoamericanas (perversiones y fantasas en el imaginario colonial). Revista Acadmica para el Estudio de las Religiones Tomo III: Ritos y Creencias del Nuevo Milenio, 19-40. de Len, L. 2001. Poesas completas: propias, imitaciones y traducciones, Cuevas Garca, Cristobal (ed.). Madrid, Castalia. del Techo, N. 1673. Historia de la Provincia del Paraguay de la Compaa de Jess. Leodii. Daz de Guzmn, R. 1969 [1612]. Historia argentina del descubrimiento, poblacin y conquista de las provincias del Ro de La Plata, in De Angelis, P. (ed.), Coleccin de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de la Provincias del Ro de La Plata. Ilustrados con Notas y Disertaciones por Pedro De Angelis [1836]. Con prlogo y notas de Andrs M. Carretero, 27-488. Buenos Aires, Editorial Plus Ultra. Dobrizhoffer, M. 1967-69[1783]. Historia de los abipones. Resistencia, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Facultad de Humanidades, Departamento de Historia. Gruzinski, S. 2004. La colonizacin de lo imaginario. Sociedades indgenas y occidentalizacin en el Mxico Espaol, siglos XVI-XVIII. Mxico, Fondo de Cultura Econmica. Guevara, J. 1969[1764]. Historia del Paraguay, Ro de la Plata y Tucumn, in De Angelis, P. (ed.), Coleccin de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de la Provincias del Ro de La Plata. Ilustrados con Notas y Disertaciones por Pedro De Angelis [1836]. Con prlogo y notas de Andrs M. Carretero, 499-830. 2 ed. Buenos Aires, Editorial Plus Ultra. Lpez, A. M. 2009. La Vrgen, el rbol y la Serpiente. Cielos e Identidades en comunidades mocoves del Chaco.Unpublished PhD thesis, Facultad de Filosofa y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Paucke, F. 1942-44[1749-1767]. Hacia all y para ac (una estada entre los indios mocoves). Tucumn, Universidad de Tucumn. Richard, N. 2006. El Sitio de Babel: La ofensiva jesuta sobre el Chaco (s. XVIII). Anales de Desclasificacin 1, La derrota del rea cultural n2 831-846. Snchez, S. 2002. Demonologa en Indias. Idolatra y mmesis diablica en la obra de Jos de Acosta. Revista Complutense de Historia de Amrica 28, 9-34. Schofield Saeger, J. 1985. Another View of the Mission as a Frontier Institution: The Guaycuruan Reductions of Santa Fe, 1743-1810. The Hispanic American Historical Review 65, 3 493-517. Vitar, B. 2001. La evangelizacin del Chaco y el combate jesutico contra el demonio. Andes, 12 201-222.

Acknowledgements:
I am grateful to the executive committee of SEAC, to Fernando Pimenta and the LOC of SEAC 2011. Also, I am thankful to the Mocov and to PhD. student Agustina Altman for her collaboration in the fieldwork and critical insights on drafts of this paper.