Missionaries: From Alaska to Patagonia · Episode 7 of 10 · 42 min
The 500-Year Crusade for Amazonian Souls: Jesuits, Pombal, and the Uncontacted
In Brazil, Jesuits spent two centuries protecting Indigenous people from colonists while gathering them into mission villages and inventing a common language to convert them. Pombal then expelled the Jesuits in 1759 and banned Indigenous languages. The episode runs through the rubber boom to today's evangelical efforts to contact uncontacted peoples, set against Brazil's no-contact policy.
Who's who
- José de AnchietaJesuit 'Apostle of Brazil'; co-founded São Paulo; codified Língua Geral
- Marquis of PombalPortuguese prime minister who expelled the Jesuits in 1759
- Davi Kopenawa+1 more episodeYanomami shaman and author of The Falling Sky
- Ricardo Lopes DiasFormer missionary put in charge of FUNAI's isolated-peoples unit in 2020
Where it happens
- Brazil+3 more episodesSetting of the aldeias and the Amazon frontier
- São Paulo, Brazil+1 more episodeCo-founded by Anchieta and Nóbrega in 1554
- Javari Valley, BrazilRegion linked to a 2020 helicopter scheme
- Yanomami territory, BrazilInvaded by gold miners in 1987 and again in 2023
Timeline
- 1549Jesuits arrive in Brazil and begin the aldeia project
- 1595Anchieta publishes a Tupi grammar codifying Língua Geral
- 1759Pombal expels the Jesuits
- 1879-1912Amazon rubber boom enslaves and kills Indigenous people
- 1980sFUNAI adopts a no-contact policy
- 1987About 40,000 gold miners invade Yanomami land
Still debated
The Jesuits fought Indigenous enslavement yet the aldeias also controlled Indigenous life and profited from their labor. The missionaries cite the Gospel and material aid, while evidence and Brazilian state policy hold that contact brings lethal epidemics. How much Língua Geral survived Pombal's ban is also debated.
← PreviousAndean Resistance and the War on "Idolatry": Missions in the Inca WorldNext →How the Guaraní Fought Two Empires: The Jesuit Reductions and the Guaraní War
