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The dominating self: subjectivities of government in the Jesuit-Guaraní Missions of colonial South America.

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Abstract

Whereas the multi-disciplinary literature on subjectivities and government has contributed to the understanding of the constitution and configuration of the subjectivities of a considerable range of governed subjects, it has tended to overlook the subjectivities of governing agents. Based on a genealogical analysis of textual materials on the Jesuit-Guaraní missions of colonial South America, I describe the bodily and spatial-territorial subjectivities of the Jesuit missionaries as governing agents, the general mechanisms and practical and discursive tools through which such subjectivities were formed, and the subjectivities’ contributions to the governmental apparatus displayed across the missions. I argue that conceiving of the transversal subjective complexity of governmental apparatuses problematizes dichotomic views over techniques of domination versus the constitution of selves, and allows for the analysis of continuums of subjectivities across governed and governing agents and within governmental apparatuses themselves.

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Notes

  1. The indigenous voices are certainly underrepresented in the Jesuit corpus (Becker 1992; Lienhard 1992). The textual materials discussed in this article comprise only the voices of the different Jesuit subjects active across the missions and the order at large.

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  1. Centro de Estudios Sociológicos (CES), Camino al Ajusco # 20, Pedregal de Santa Teresa, Tlalpan, 10740, Mexico City, Mexico

    Edgar Zavala-Pelayo

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Zavala-Pelayo, E. The dominating self: subjectivities of government in the Jesuit-Guaraní Missions of colonial South America.. Subjectivity 30, 54–69 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-023-00151-0

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