Analyzes one of the most important Catholic mission systems in republican-era Latin America, the Franciscan missions among the Chiriguano Indians in Bolivia, as a model for the study of a postcolonial missions system, focusing on the struggle of the Chrig

List of Illustrations and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. The "Chiriguano Wars": Indian Warfare and the Establishment of the Missions 21
2. The Franciscans 61
3. Death and Migration: The Population Decline of the Missions 101
4. Daily Life and the Development of Mission Culture 126
5. Conversion, Chiefs, and Rebellions: Relationships of Power on the Missions 160
6. Missions and the Frontier Economy 196
7. Outside Relations and the Decline of the Missions 218
8. From the Chaco War to Secularization, 1932–1949 257
9. Comparions 270
Appendix: The Inauguration of Tiguipa Church (1902) 284
Glossary 289
Notes 291
Bibliography 337
Index 355