Red de comunicación jesuita desde la Misión de Moxos

RED DE COMUNICACIÓN JESUITA DESDE LA MISIÓN DE MOXOS (Spine title: Red de comunicación jesuita en Moxos) (Thesis format: Monograph)

by

Carlos-Urani Montiel-Contreras

Graduate Program in Hispanic Studies

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada

© Carlos-Urani Montiel-Contreras 2011

Abstract The Society of Jesus shared information and generated knowledge through a communication network that made it possible to trace connection patterns. Jesuits used reiterative forms to share messages and to distribute knowledge between their European and American provinces. The aim of my thesis is to account for the scope, impact, and advantages of such communication strategies, which applied in a context where the environment was a decisive factor for the missional ministry. The Moxos Mission on the upper Amazon in what is now modern Bolivia consisted of an array of small urban settlements with strong influence in the Hispanic Kingdom from 1667 to 1767. By focusing on the relationships in communication, the modeling of the network allows us to explore the continuity between the content of the messages and the context of the communication. Additionally, we studied the path of diffusion through which the message influenced later practices. Messengers (Jesuit fathers and indigenous neophytes) participating in the cycle carry out a micro function, but their output has an impact at the macrostructure and results in patterns of exchange, artistic creation and coexistence over time.

Keywords Social network, communication, Jesuit, mission, Moxos

iii