Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: GILSON MATEUS PINTO JUNIOR

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GILSON MATEUS PINTO JUNIOR
DATE: 14/10/2025
TIME: 15:00
LOCAL: Meet - Online
TITLE:

PEOPLE, TERRITORY AND JESUIT ACTIONS: THE LAND COMPOSITION SYSTEM IN THE AUDIENCE OF QUITO (ECUADOR, XVI-XVII CENTURY)

KEY WORDS:

Land composition; Society of Jesus; Colonial Ecuador; Indigenous peoples; History of the Andes

PAGES: 234
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUMMARY:

This dissertation aims to investigate the historical process of formation and consolidation of the Society of Jesus' land holdings in the region of the Royal Audiencia of Quito, with an emphasis on the land settlements made in 1696 and their impact on indigenous populations and the colonial agrarian landscape. The research focuses on the legal and administrative mechanisms used by the Jesuit order to legitimize the possession of vast tracts of land, constituting part of the broader dynamics of land appropriation, evangelization, and social discipline in Spanish America. The research focuses on the 16th and 17th centuries, with a specific focus on the settlements of 1696, the year in which the Society of Jesus' land regularization processes intensified in the Ecuadorian highlands. The methodology adopted is qualitative in nature, combining historical analysis with legal-institutional and ethnohistorical approaches. The research uses a diverse set of primary sources, including petitions, decrees, declarations, and royal instructions, drawn primarily from the Miguel de Cervantes Library Archives, and colonial legislation compiled in Francisco Solano's Cedulario de Tierras. The core documentary corpus of the investigation consists of 26 land agreements promoted by the Society of Jesus in 1696 and 21 annual charters issued by the Society of Jesus, whose tabulation allowed for the identification of patterns of territorialization, legal arguments, and agents involved. The methodological procedures involved: paleographic documentary analysis of the agreements; tabulation of data such as location, land extension, amounts paid, justifications presented, and ethnicities mentioned; use of digital cartography tools (QGIS) to visually represent the Jesuit territorial domain and ethnic distribution in the region; and dialogue with theoretical frameworks that include authors such as Paolo Grossi, José-Miguel Lana Berasain, and Rosa Congost, highlighting the notion of dominium utile and property as a social and relational institution. The dissertation is structured in three chapters. The first discusses the legal foundations of the land composition system in Indian law and its redefinitions in the context of the Audiencia of Quito. The second chapter analyzes Jesuit involvement in the process of land accumulation, based on patrimonial documents and annual charters between 1587 and 1660, highlighting the phases of the order's presence and its articulation with colonial power. The third chapter examines the conflicts and negotiations that emerged in the proceedings of 1696, with special attention to Indigenous legal strategies, which combined resistance, accommodation, and agency in the face of the imposed logic of title. Ultimately, the study proposes that land compositions should be understood as legal rituals of translation, in which the Indigenous useful domain was legally reconfigured to adapt to the fiscal and political demands of the Spanish Empire, while local subjects negotiated spaces of autonomy within the colonial structure. The research thus contributes to the historiographical debate on the history of property in Latin America, revealing the persistence of colonial legacies in contemporary land disputes.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa à Instituição - VIVIANA VELASCO-HERRERA
Presidente - 1324248 - CARMEN MARGARIDA OLIVEIRA ALVEAL
Interno - 3332288 - NUNO MIGUEL DE MORAIS PESTANA TAROUCA CAMARINHAS
Interno - ***.412.534-** - THIAGO ALVES DIAS - UPE