Evangelization, visual technologies and indigenous responses: The South American Missionary Society in the Paraguayan Chaco

Abstract

At the end of the 1880´s the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) established its first missionary station in the Paraguayan Chaco, on the shore opposite Villa Concepcion city, on the Chaco bank of Paraguay river. After a somewhat difficult beginning, these missionaries started moving west, thus entering the territory inhabited by the Enxet, an indigenous people usually referred to as Lengua-Maskoy. The Anglican missionaries, as it was customary in missionary societies at the time, carefully documented their activities in the Chaco by means of letters, reports, illustrations, maps, photographs, etc., that were published in the society´s monthly magazine. In addition to that visual images and devices, mainly the magic lantern, occupied a key place both in propagating the Gospel and as a particularly effective vehicle for the spread of the Western theology and culture.Bearing in mind that the publicity and proselytizing aim of visual media by missionary societies is commonly emphasized our analysis of the use of visual technologies by these missionaries aims to knowing how they made use of visual technologies for evangelization purposes, particularly emphasizing in the responses of the Enxet.