Les missions jesuites a San Ignacio

Bonjour a tous...

Nous sommes desoles pour ce petit silence de qqes jours mais les evenements se sont succedes a grande vitesse ces derniers jours...

Donc voila... reprenons qqes jours en arriere: San Ignacio. Nous avons pris une excursion pour aller visiter les ruines d'un village des Missions Jesuites,classees comme "patrimoine mondial de l'humanite" par l'Unesco. Le concept etait assez interessant: A l'epoque, il y avait les indigenes Guarani et tous les colonisateurs qui arrivaient sur leur terres pour les "embarquer" et les utiliser comme esclaves. Il y avait egalement la Couronne espagnole qui se donnait un role evangelisateur. Resultat? Les jesuites sont envoyes pour offrir aux indigenes de vivre avec eux dans des villages et des les proteger contre les invasions colonisatrices. Pendant environ 150 ans, cette association basee sur un "respect mutuel" entre jesuites et Guarani, a cree des synergies entre les 2 cultures. Les missions etaient devenues un reel succes meme economique et leur produits artisanaux etaient vendus dans le monde entier. Cela devenait "derangeant" pour les grandes puissances qui commanderent leur destruction.... Pour l'anecdote,toute leur vie etait reglee.... cela allait jusque la vie sexuelle: les jesuites sonnaient une cloche situee au milieu du village en general 4 a 5 fois par an, et cela donnait permission aux couples d'entreprendre un moment d'intimite en vue d'agrandir la famille. Et le reste du temps? abstention... voila ce qu'on appelle du planning familial! NB: En cas d'epidemie, les jesuites sonnaient plus souvent la cloche pdt les mois suivants pour repeupler le village....
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Sincere apologies for our silence over last couple of days but it's been pretty busy and the main blog contributor (read Mimi) caught a cold about a week ago and needed a bit of rest. But now, we are.... back blogging!

Wednesday, we had an excursion to visit the ruins of the Jesuit Missions of San Ignacio. To make it simple, at that time, there were the indigenous tribes of Guaranis in the region, then there were the colonizers coming along and taking indigenous people as slaves and there was the Spanish Crown who wanted to spread the Catholic faith throughout its colonies. So the deal was that indigenous people who wanted could join the Jesuit Missions, villages where they were going to be protected from the individuals seeking slaves but they had to obide by village life and rules: convert to Catholicism and live in line with Catholic principles (monogamy, mass twice a day, sharing..) and live as a village where every adult had tasks (agriculture, cooking, cleaning, handicraft..) while all the kids were going to school,where the priests were the teachers. All the widows and orphans also had a special place and were catered to by the rest of the community for food etc. It's incredible how their whole life was regulated and planned out! For the small anecdote, even their sex life was planned: 4-5 times a year, the priests would ring a special bell which allowed the indigenous people to have an intimate moment to grow the family. And the rest of the time? Abstinence!! However, after edidemias or "wars" to protect the village, the "sex" bell would go on more often as they needed to populate the village back quicker! So to our gentlemen readers who claim "they never have enough", just think you could have been a Guarani in a Jesuit village and stop complaining!! There was also a small prison to punish those who got into intra-village fights or didn't do their tasks or committed a sin....