Benjamin Franklin once wrote of the surprising event of those who return to Indian society in a letter:
When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural [to them] merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.[1]
The reason behind this is because Indian tribes offered a community that the Protestant ethic could not provide. It cannot solve the decline in social capital that sociologist Robert Putnam has documented in Bowling Alone. The assimilation of ethnic foreigners into tribes is also a successful example of how diversity need not necessarily result in conflict. Aristotle noted the perils of diversity: “Another cause of revolution is difference of races which do not at once acquire a common spirit; for a state is not the growth of a day, any more than it grows out of a multitude brought together by accident. Hence the reception of strangers in colonies, either at the time of their foundation or afterwards, has generally produced revolution.”[2] At the same time, he also identified friendship as a unifier: “For friendship we believe to be the greatest good of states and the preservative of them against revolutions; neither is there anything which Socrates so greatly lauds as the unity of the state which he and all the world declare to be created by friendship.”[3]
The communal aspect of these tribes was further enhanced by the fact that every person had a specific role to play in the community. The hunters would provide meat, farmers the agriculture, etc. If someone could not work, they would still be cared for, but since each person’s role directly affected the immediate community, they could not live an isolated life like modern capitalist society, where a person can work and not have any civic participation.
By living as the Indians did, the white outsiders were accepted. However, life wasn’t completely idyllic, for tribal warfare still existed. Nonetheless, life in Indian societies was seen by many as superior to the developed English society outside. As David Graeber and David Wengrow write:
Some emphasized the virtues of freedom they found in Native American societies, including sexual freedom, but also freedom from the expectation of constant toil in pursuit of land and wealth. Others noted the ‘Indian’s’ reluctance ever to let anyone fall into a condition of poverty, hunger or destitution. It was not so much that they feared poverty themselves, but rather that they found life infinitely more pleasant in a society where no one else was in a position of abject misery.
…
Still others noted the ease with which outsiders, taken in by ‘Indian’ families, might achieve acceptance and prominent positions in their adoptive communities, becoming members of chiefly households, or even chiefs themselves. Western propagandists speak endlessly about equality of opportunity; these seem to have been societies where it actually existed. By far the most common reasons, however, had to do with the intensity of social bonds they experienced in Native American communities: qualities of mutual care, love and above all happiness, which they found impossible to replicate once back in European settings.[4]
Slaving in monotonous jobs does not result in a sense of belonging or meaning in life. Capitalist society is not the only option for governance in the modern world. Although we cannot go back to more primitive tribal societies that require ownership of large swaths of land and hunting for sustenance due to human population increase, the communal society can still be incorporated today. We can even avoid the violence between tribes if civilized Catholicism is incorporated as the basis of their culture and way of life. This civilizing effect can be seen successfully with the Jesuit Reductions.
The Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay is one example of retaining the close bonds natives held while improving their quality of life with proper economic techniques. Aristotle observed that “The equalization of property is one of the things that tend to prevent the citizens from quarrelling,”[5] and the Reductions are a perfect model of a successful community, where everyone is cared for:
The land and all that stood upon it was the property of the community. The land was apportioned among the caciques, who allotted it to the families under them. Agricultural instruments and draught-cattle were loaned from the common supply. No one was permitted to sell his plot of land or his house, called abamba, i.e. “own possession.” The individual efforts of the Indians, owing to their indolence, soon proved to be inadequate, whereupon separate plots were set aside as common fields, called Tupamba, i.e. “God’s property” which were cultivated by common labour under the guidance of the Padres. The products of these fields were placed in the common storehouse, and were used partly for the support of the poor, the sick, widows, orphans, Church Indians, etc., partly as seed for the next year, partly as reserve supply for unforeseen contingencies, and also as a medium of exchange for European goods and for taxes (see below). The yield of the private fields and of private effort became the absolute property of the Indians, and was credited to them individually in the common barter transactions, so that each received in exchange the goods he desired. Those abamba plots which gave a smaller yield because of faulty individual management were exchanged from time to time. The herds of livestock were also common property.[6]
The natives of the Christian commonwealth had all the jobs that would be expected of a prosperous society:
Some were carpenters, joiners, wood-turners, builders; others blacksmiths, goldsmiths, armourers, bellfounders, masons, sculptors, stone-cutters, tilemakers, house-painters, painters and gilders, shoemakers, tailors, bookbinders, weavers, dyers, bakers, butchers, tanners, instrument-makers, organ-builders, copyists, calligraphers etc. Others again were employed in the powder-mills, tea-mills, corn-mills etc.
Unlike other Indians, those of the Reductions had a respect for authority and government, and thus order was maintained. One Jesuit writing in 1644 records the general problem of Indians in relation to authoritative figures:
I do not believe that there is any people on earth freer than they, and less able to allow the subjection of their wills to any power whatever – so much so that Fathers here have no control over their children, or Captains over their subjects, or the Laws of the country over any of them, except in so far as each is pleased to submit to them. There is no punishment which is inflicted on the guilty, and no criminal who is not sure that his life and property are in no danger.[7]
The Jesuit Reductions mitigated these problems. Catholicism was the foundation of the Reductions, and thus a moral framework encompassed their entire lives, a major contrast compared to their surrounding enemies who sought to destroy their lifestyle:
The Reductions of Paraguay are justly called a model of a theocratic commonwealth. Religion ruled the entire public and private life. The entire community attended Holy Mass and the evening devotions daily. Prayers and religious songs accompanied and encompassed work and recreation alike. Religious instruction was given daily for the children, on several days each week for catechumens, and every Sunday for the entire parish. Through the medium of easily sung catechismal hymns the doctrines and the principal events of the life of Christ and those of the saints were impressed upon the minds of the people. A sort of religious handbook bearing the title “Ara poru aguiyey haba yacoa ymomoeoinda” (On the Proper Use of Time) written by P. Jos. de Insauralde (born at Asunción; d. 1730), printed at Madrid in 1759-84 in two volumes, and which was very popular, gave directions concerning the performance of various acts at home and in church in a holy and meritorious manner.
Public religious life in the splendid churches found its expression in an exceedingly brilliant manner, particularly on feast-days. Church music was carefully cultivated, especially under the direction of Italian and German Fathers, and its production would have been, according to the testimony of Don Franc. Xarque, a credit to any Spanish cathedral. In consequence, the church choirs of the Reductions were frequently invited to the Spanish cities. The reports of the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christ, the patronal feasts, the Rogation and penitential processions, the devotion to the saints (particularly to the Blessed Virgin), the representations of the Crib and the Passion, mystery-plays, sacramental dances, and so on, convey a charming picture of the religious life in the Reductions. Religious societies also, especially the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin, attained to a remarkable growth. The reception of the sacraments, after the Reductions had become firmly grounded, and a solid body of older Christians had been obtained, was, according to the annual reports, and in accordance with ecclesiastical practice of the times, very good. The members of the religious societies received Communion monthly, many of them weekly. The early marriages (boys were obliged to marry at 17, girls at 15), strict discipline, and surveillance fostered chastity among the natives, which aided the natural increase of the race, ordinarily not very fruitful (the average number of children in was four). Careful control and strict segregation of all objectionable elements did the rest. “Such innocence prevails among these people,” Bishop Faxardo wrote, 20 May 1720, from Buenos Aires to Philip V, “who are composed exclusively of Indians naturally inclined to all kinds of vices, that I believe no mortal sin is ever committed there, the vigilance of the shepherds foreseeing and preventing even the slightest fault.” A number of authentic testimonials of bishops and royal visiting inspectors speak with the greatest admiration of the religious zeal, the devotion, purity of morals, Christian brotherly love, and conscientiousness of the Indians, as well as the unshirking devotion and the edifying lives of the priests.[8]
So forward-thinking were the Jesuits in their planning that they never resorted to capital punishment, with “Crimes deserving capital punishment, which occurred but rarely, were punished by expulsion from the Reduction and surrender of the perpetrator to the Spanish authorities.”[9]
The Jesuits and the Indians, although of different ethnic backgrounds, lived peacefully together. “The fact that these tribes, so enamoured of liberty, did not undertake a single uprising against the missionaries, while on the other hand revolts among the encomienda Indians were very frequent, and the additional circumstance that two or three Fathers were sufficient to keep a population of 1000 to 2000 souls in order and discipline, surely speaks very strongly in favour of the system and proves the untruth of the accusation of Jesuit despotism.”[10] Because of the success of the Reductions, the perils of diversity that Aristotle warned of were avoided. Catholicism, which promoted love for fellow man, was crucial to this lasting peace.
Even after the Jesuits were suppressed and expelled from the Reductions in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the Reductions continued to have beneficial societal results. For example, professor Felipe Valencia Caicedo studied 30 Jesuit missions in South America, focused on the areas around Reductions. His conclusions may be surprising to those who know little of the effectiveness of the Jesuits:
He discovered that in everything from literacy and skills training to overall levels of education, the areas around the former Jesuit missions continue to show significantly higher levels of achievement than equivalent communities without missions—with median years of schooling and literacy levels 10 to 15 percent higher, and modern per-capita incomes nearly 10 percent higher. These areas also show the persistence of skills that can be quite specific, and Mr. Valencia offers the example of embroidery. “We know for a fact that this was introduced to the area by Jesuit missionaries, who were mostly coming from the Low Countries,” he explains. “They bring this European technology or distraction or hobby, this innovation. And it turns out today there is more embroidery in former Jesuit municipalities” than elsewhere in Brazil.
“They’re there for 150 years,” he says of the Jesuit missions. “By the time they leave there are eight generations that have been trained and educated in these Jesuit ways, so to speak.” And apparently, the impact on local culture was more or less permanent. “There are these mechanisms of transmission of knowledge that are still present today,” Mr. Valencia says, including parents passing on knowledge to their children.[11]
Valencia also noted that these descendants had a higher sense of ethics and were more charitable than those outside the Reductions. To summarize, Catholicism and practical education go a long ways to develop successful communities, where people can work together and live faithful lives. The legacy of the Jesuit Reductions is a testament to their fruitful work.
[1] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-0173
[2] Aristotle, Politics, 5.3.
[3] Aristotle, Politics, 2.4.
[4] Graeber, David. The Dawn of Everything (p. 20). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.
[5] Politics, 2.7.
[6] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12688b.htm
[7] Graeber, David. The Dawn of Everything (pp. 41-42). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.
[8] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12688b.htm
[9] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12688b.htm
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