A retórica da alteridade como enredo dos registros sobre a conquista e a evangelização nos territórios da América meridional (séculos XVI e XVII)

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the narratives produced by secular chroniclers and missionaries that circulated or acted in the Jesuitic Province of Paraguay, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will focus on the effects of the experience – derived from the intercultural contact – in records about Guarani, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The analysis of these narratives reveals the concern that secular as well as religious people had in defining the favourable inclinations and the natural incompetence of the indigenous, and, also, in justifying their utilization or eradication for the success of the civilization and evangelization project.