Spatial Tactics and the Society of Jesus in Brazil and Ethiopia, c.1549-1640.

Abstract

This thesis employs theoretical principles of the ‘spatial turn’ to examine how Jesuits negotiated indigenous spaces, and created and managed their own, in Brazil and Ethiopia (c.1549-1640). It also seeks to understand the implications of the Jesuits’ spatial tactics for their approach towards Brazilian and Ethiopian alterity. This thesis engages with these two very different case studies in order to demonstrate firstly how considerations of ‘space’ – in its various iterations – were fundamental to the global outreach of the Society of Jesus, and secondly how explicitly the Society’s institutional ethos spatially informed their ‘ways of proceeding’ in both the Old World and the New. This thesis informs a deeper theoretical understanding of the Jesuits’ perception and use of space, and finds that spatial tactics were a conscious and essential missionary strategy in both Brazil and Ethiopia. The Jesuits had an abiding aversion to spaces they perceived as liminal or ambiguous, such as Brazil’s sertão or the contested and porous borders of Ethiopia’s ‘empire.’ This led to both pragmatic developments of ‘strongly-framed’ spaces whereby priests could exert greater control, and rhetorical renditions of native territory based upon a binary understanding of exclusive and inclusive space. Alongside practicality, the Jesuits’ use of spatial tactics was determined by a firm belief that hierarchical authority was key to achieving their desired evangelical aims. Their renditions of space were also rooted in concepts of institutional identity, namely, efforts to ‘edify’ the Society and contribute to the worldwide ‘union of souls.’ The Jesuits’ engagement with space did not allow them unfettered dominance over their relations with indigenous catechumens, however. Jesuits were often subject to processes beyond their sphere of influence and were forced to compromise in the face of unavoidable local conditions, a theme which this thesis also addresses.