Missionary interactions and Indian marriages in the frontiers (Maranhão early 17th century)

Abstract

This study analyzes the mission in terms of interaction, studying as the indigenous perspective as the evangelist's one. Indians and missionaries are actors in this ministry, which is never far from the colonial power relationship. It is through the issue of the Indians Christian marriage that the referred interaction is addressed. The marriage is the center of the missionary project of Indians transformation and it is the same as the center of indigenous resistance or negotiation. From the example of the French Capuchins sources of the early 17th century, in Maranhão, the research shows the wealth of the friar's writings by the history and the anthropology of the Indian in situation of contact with the missionaries.

missionaries; indians; marriage