An Utopia... that Was a Reality in the Americas
"The Guaraní society was the first in history of the world to be entirely literate."
Not only a system such as I propose is possible in the future--even at its most idealist--but it has also been a reality in the past--right here in the Americas. Of course, the lion had to destroy it--so in the future he wouldn't have competition that was too successful. Sure enough, that region has now become one of the poorest in the world...
It became a famous movie, "The Mission." And that movie made me a Revolutionary, so that I could "right many wrongs"...
The Jesuit Missions (Reducciones) in South America.
Written by Marco Ramerini
The Indios Guaraní of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil would have been another indigenous people victim of the colonial conquest in South America, if the Jesuits would haven't been able to persuade the King of Spain to grant that vast region to their care.
The Jesuits promised to the King generous rewards, in the form of tributes, in exchange of the exemption from the "encomiendas" (hard labour to which were subjected all the other Indios), assuring that the region would have been an Imperial dominion thanks only to the Gospel power.
Therefore, for about 150 years, the Jesuits succeeded in protecting the Guaraní from the raids of the slave-hunters from São Paulo (Paulistas). They founded several missions or "reducciones" and developed a kind of evangelisation a bit peculiar for that time. They put into practice the precepts of the Gospel, isolated the Guaraní from the bad influences of the Europeans and developed the creativity of the Indios.
The Jesuits, in the 17th and 18th Centuries, achieved this bold experiment in religious colonisation. The Reducciones encompassed the vast zone of today’s Argentina, Paraguay, southern Brazil and Uruguay. They were one of the most singular creations of the Catholic missionary activity.
The first settlement had founded in 1609. Many other Missions were established along the rivers, in the Chaco, Guaira and Paraná territories.
The first missions were founded in Brazil, but due to the continuous raids of the Paulistas, were soon abandoned (1640s.).
Guided by the Jesuits, the Indios had advanced laws, they founded free public services for the poor, schools, hospitals, established birth control, and suppressed the death penalty. A kind of society based on the principles of the primitive Christianity had been established. All the inhabitants of the "reducciones" worked in the "tupambae", land property of the community, and all the products which they produced were fairly divided among them. The Guaraní were very skilled in handicraft works, sculpture, woodcarving etc.; the "reducciones", were the first "industrial" state of the South America. Indeed, such advanced products as watches, musical instruments, etc. were produced in the "reducciones". The first typography of the New World had been built in the reducciones. The working day was about 6 hours (in Europe at that time was of 12-14 hours), and the free time had been dedicated to music, dance, bow-shot contests and to prayer.
The Guaraní society was the first in history of the world to be entirely literate.
(see article below)
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