Traveling priests and big parties

Here is another revealing quote from a Spanish priest in Mojos, this time directly from a letter written by Zapata, describing how the missionaries interacted with Mojeños:

Habiendo quitado las borracheras de estos indios, que la hacián por paga de los que les ayudaban á carpir sus chacras y haces sus casas, se han conmutado en darles de comer; y así viene el indio á avisar al Padre que le han carpido su chacra ó hecho su casa sus parientes, y se les da medio novillo ó más para que festeje á los suyos y les dé de comer y no haíga borrachera. Y esto lo tengo yo notablemente observado.... pues, fuera de pecado común, hacían otros de vengarse los sentimientos en las borracheras, y había muchas muertes entre ellos; pero esto hace mucho tiempo que no se usa, y ellos han conocideo que es mejor comer á costa agena que no dar beber á la suya, y á nosotros nos está más á cuento de esa suerte y evitar tanto pecado junto. (Zapata 1906:27-28*)

Having kept these Indians from their drunken parties, which were payments to those who helped them clear their fields and build their houses, I have changed them by giving them food to eat. And thus, the Indian comes to tell the priest that his relatives have helped him clear his field or build his house, and the priest gives him half of a young bull or more so that he may celebrate with his relatives, and feed them, and not have a drunken party. I have observed this kind of party.... Outside of the ordinary sin, they have committed other sins in order to take their revenge at these drunken parties, and there are many deaths among them. This hasn't happened in a long time, and they have learned that it is better to eat at another's expense, than to drink at one's own. This is lucky for us, to avoid so many sins at once (translation by the author).

Although we don't have a lot of ethnohistoric evidence, what we do have does yield some insight about how Mojeños organized themselves for agricultural labor.

* Zapata, A. 1906 [1693] Carta del Padre Agustín Zapata al Padre Joseph Buendía, en la que da noticias del Paititi. In Juicio de límites entre el Perú y Bolivia, edited by V. M. Maurtua, pp. 24-28. Imprenta de Henrich y Comp., Barcelona.

Words from 1695

…y habiendo entrado en un pueblo muy grande, puesto en forma, con plaza y calles, halló á toda la gente de él junto á la puerta de un templo dedicado al demonio, á quien actualmente estaban ofreciendo sacrificios, puestos sus dioses todos en la puerta del templo, vestidos muy curiosamente de plumas, con unas mantas vistosas, todas labradas….y delante de ellos muchos cuartos de carne de ciervos, venados, conejos y avestruces puestos en sus palanganas, con una hoguera de fuego el medio, que continuamente arden de dia y de noche, y todo el pueblo alrededor del sacrificio. (Eguiluz and Torres S. 1884:35-36)

…and entering a large, well-formed town, with a plaza and streets, he discovered all of the people together at the door of a temple dedicated to the Devil, to whom they were offering sacrifices, placing all of their gods in the doorway of the temple, curiously dressed with feathers, with colorful garments, entirely worked….Ahead of these were many quarters of meat from deer, brocket deer, rabbit and rhea, placed in their platters,  with a bonfire in the middle, which burns continually, day and night, and all of the people were gathered around the sacrifice [my translation, from my 1999 dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania].

This quote is from one of the early Jesuit accounts of travels in Mojos. In this particular case, the priest (a man named Zapata) traveled along the Mamoré and Iruyañez Rivers, to the north of Santa Ana. Interpreting historical records like this is an important part of Amazonian archaeology, and Amazonian studies in general.

* Eguiluz, D. and E. Torres S. 1884 [1695] Historia de la misión de Mojos en la República de Bolivia. Imprenta del Universo de C. Prince, Lima.