Summary: | This article tries to display the most significant aspects of the missionary project developed by the Franciscans to conquer and submit the Sirionó (Bolivian Amazon), by showing how far they applied the strategy already undertaken one hundred years earlier with the Guarayo. We shall consider the success or the failure of this project, by analysing the fundamental reasons which led to one or the other. Taking into consideration the point of view of historians as well as a few theoretical loans from anthropology, the aim of this work is to propose a wider knowledge of the Sirionós as a group through several sources, the main one being the Diaries written by the missionaries in charge of successfully leading the process of «conquest».
|