Ritorno alle Riduzioni

Giacomo Costa
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Giacomo Costa: Universita' di Pisa

Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, 2006, vol. 114, issue 1-2, 82-102

Abstract: In one of his earlier articles, Giancarlo Mazzocchi argued that the Paraguay Reductions could not be considered communist since they showed an evolution towards more independent work on plots entrusted to individual families. But he did not give any evidence of this surmised evolution. Indeed, the historian Eberhard Gothein offered a compelling reason why this could not happen. Work on public and private plots had to be monitored, and it was almost impossible to monitor work performed on private plots. The Reductions can be seen as arising from an implicit contract whereby the Guarany tribes yielded sovereignty to the Jesuit leaders, in exchange for (i) safety from the Spanish colonists and (ii) subsistence. Thus subsistence for the Guaranis become a basic, public task of the Reductions. Thus considered, the «Guarany republics» do qualify as communistic. That education was also carried out publicly, thus engendering an «ethical state», is another concurrent consideration.

Keywords: Paraguay Jesuit reductions; pre-marxian communism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B11 B15 P26 P32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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