Abstract
This study recovers three notes on ethnic and heritage diversity in the ‘Jesuit missions of the Guaranis in colonial Paraguay’, as that experience of the 17th and 18th centuries became known. The notes seek to demonstrate that contemporary ethnological and historical studies run the risk of taking information from other groups as if they were about the Guarani, as well as concealing data from other groups that were present in that process. Born from fieldwork and documentary research carried out at the Museu das Missões and on manuscripts from the De Angelis Collection, the notes are divided into: a) the paradigms that govern traditional interpretations of that process and the impacts of the inclusion of different groups ethnic groups who made up the missions with regard to their nomination; b) the construction of a map of missional villages based on ethnic diversity; c) research problems based on ethnic diversity applied to heritage issues related to the missional past. Together, they point out possibilities regarding the ethnological, historical and heritage construction related to Paraguayan missions when interested in the recognition and promotion of ethnic diversity, thus expanding the cultural horizon of that experience.
Keywords
Missions; Paraguay; Ethnic diversity; Indigenous people; Jesuits