ISBN : 9780199485086
The early modern European experience in the Indies was marked by accommodation to local peoples and their cultures, and numerous failures. Nonetheless, this experience led to the consolidation of an enduring vision of cultural and political dominion. Through the lives of six Jesuit missionaries in early modern Brazil and India, this book seeks to understand how the messy realities of power in colonial spaces could give way to a grandiose, and self-fulfilling, imagination of empire.
Acknowledgement Introduction II. From Contact to 'Conquest' PART I. IN SEARCH OF THE INDIES II. Other Indies III. The Living Books PART II. ACCOMMODATIO AND THE POETICS OF LOCATION IV. Jose de Anchieta and the Poetics of Warfare V. Christ in the brahmapuri: Thomas Stephens in Salcete PART III. RELIGION, ACCOMMODATIO AND THE IMAGINATION OF EMPIRE VI. Theatres of Empire: Antonio Vieira and Baltasar da Costa in Brazil and India VII. The Empire of Apostles Epilogue Bibliography Index