Educação no encontro cultural: jesuítas e nativos na América portuguesa do século XVI

Abstract

Emphasizing education in the cultural encounter between Jesuits and natives in Portuguese America in the sixteenth century is the ultimate goal of this research. Taking into account the cultural alterity of the subjects, a great part of the dissertation is dedicated in highlighting the inherent cultural aspects of the Society of Jesus and its educational dimensions, and discussing the representations of indigenous culture through the religious records of that time. A considerable amount of primary documents, especially the Jesuit letters, and a large historiographic production on the period are taken as sources. The theoretical references are from the French Cultural History (Michel de Certeau and Roger Chartier); and in dialogue with the other neighboring areas of historical knowledge production, this work aims to gather elements from anthropology, linguistics, literature, philosophy, and psychology that fill interpretative gaps. On the one hand, the adaptations of the Ignatian modus procedendi amid the difficulties in the lands overseas. On the other hand, the resistance of the indigenous customs in confrontation with the arrival of Catholic Europeans of the sixteenth century. Among strategies and artifices, education is present in the missionary approaches, in order to regenerate the degenerate, convert to Christianity, save and help souls, impose Christian morality and expand the realms of the kingdom and the Kingdom.