The core and the links: indigenous strategies and social interaction on the southern border of Brazil (1814-1822)

The themes of this article are the ability of the Guarani-Missioneiros to ensure their sociocultural reproduction and the strategies employed in this and to establish interactions with colonial society in the center-west of Rio Grande do Sul from 1814 to 1822 in the midst of a situation of generalized war and the decline of the missionary socio-political and economic system. Through the analysis of baptismal records from Sao Borja and Santa Maria, we examine patterns of godparenthood, marriage and the formation of human clusters. We realized that society in general was fragmented and discontinuous. Regarding the indigenous people, it was concluded that they were organized in aggregates through family relationships that unfolded in at least two forms of identity: as a people in Sao Borja and as a community in Santa Maria. Such clusters of Indians were organized nuclearly by women and externally by men with prestige within the community and who acted as links with non-indigenous groups.