Zwischen Welten und Worten : Transkulturelle Übersetzungsprozesse in der Jesuitenmission des 18. Jahrhunderts bei Florian Paucke

Abstract

How did communication take place in the mission between people of different cultural backgrounds? What interests did Jesuits, indigenous people and Spaniards pursue in the Gran Chaco border region in the Jesuit province of Paraguay? What dependencies arose as a result? The Jesuit Florian Paucke (1719-1780) provided answers to these questions in his treatise »Hin und Her«, in which he wrote about his experiences in the Paraguay mission. Ulrich Stober is the first to make the manuscript and the missionary’s more than 200 watercolor drawings comprehensively accessible. On this basis, linguistic and cultural translation processes are examined with the aid of numerous archive materials. The focus is on the missionaries’ engagement with the indigenous language, diet and clothing as well as different ideas of gender roles. Even if Paucke adopted a genuinely European perspective in this respect, it is central that indigenous lifeworlds framed and shaped the questions of the European actors.