Demographic Change and Ethnic Survival among the Sedentary Populations on the Jesuit Mission Frontiers of Spanish South America, 1609-1803

Robert H. Jackson received his doctorate in 1988 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in Latin American history. He has published more than ten books and 60 journal articles. Brill published his book Conflict and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Mexico in 2013. He currently resides in Mexico City.

• General Editor’s ForewordList of IllustrationsList of MapsList of FiguresList of TablesChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Managing the Missions and Social-Cultural ChangeChapter 3: Smallpox Epidemics and Smallpox Treatment Chapter 4: Demographic Patterns on the Paraguay and Chiquitos Mission FrontiersChapter 5: Mission Demographic Patterns among Sedentary and Non-Sedentary Natives on the Frontiers of Spanish America: A Comparative DiscussionChapter 6: Post Jesuit Expulsion Population Trends Chapter 7: ConclusionsAppendicesAppendix 1: Population of the Paraguay MissionsAppendix 2: Females as a Percentage of the Total Population of the Paraguay Missions Appendix 3: Marriages Recorded in the Paraguay Missions, in selected yearsAppendix4: Vital Rates of the Paraguay MissionsAppendix5: Population of the Chiquitos MissionsAppendix 6: Females as a percentage of the total population of the Chiquitos MissionsAppendix 7: Marriages Recorded in the Chiquitos Missions in selected yearsAppendix 8: Vital Rates of the Chiquitos MissionsAppendix 9: Castillian Weights and Measures Mentioned in the TextAppendix 10: A Note on colonial Spanish American Silver CoinsAppendix 11: Area Measurements of Agricultural Land in Spanish AmericaSelected Bibliography

"The text will be of great use to scholars of not only the Jesuit missions but also other orders who worked among the native populations throughout the Americas. As a result of Jackson’s meticulous study of Jesuit records, those interested in the history of medicine, environment, and social conditions in the missions will find in this book a great deal to enjoy." - Bridget María Chesterton, in: Hispanic American Historical Review, 91:1 (2017), pp. 157-158 [doi 10.1215/00182168-3727599]"Es una contribución al debate desarrollado en el marco de la Nueva Historia Misional. Desde hace varias décadas diversos autores norteamericanos, entre los cuales está el propio Robert Jackson, han se˜nalado la importancia de analizar las consecuencias de las misiones para la población indígena y han subrayado, en particular, la importancia de estudiar el cambio demográfico. Algunos investigadores han concedido un peso determinante a elementos ligados al medio ambiente: sequías, cambio climático, presencia de ganado, entre otros. El autor de este libro considera relevantes estos factores, para se˜nalar que la principal razón de la caída de la población indígena fueron las epidemias, en su opinión la gravedad de sus efectos no se reduce al siglo XVI, siguió teniendo incidencia significativa durante los siglos XVII y XVIII, como lo demuestra en este estudio." - María Teresa Álvarez Icaza Longoria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in: Estudios de Historia Novohispana, 54 (2016), pp. 103–105"...it is a tour de force of demographic history and helps revise the “Indians are coming to an end” myth. It will be of interest to Río de la Plata specialists, historical demographers, and historians of New Spain’s northern frontiers." - Shawn Michael Austin, in: Journal of Jesuit Studies, 3:1 (2016), pp. 102-104 [DOI: 10.1163/22141332-00301005-05]"By selecting such a late terminus ad quem (almost half a century after suppression of the Jesuits within the Spanish empire by order of King Charles III in 1767), the author is able to demonstrate the degree to which the mission settlements of the Guaranì in particular, and the Chiquitos Indians to a lesser extent, survived, despite significant out-migration, so that, to this day, their descendants still inhabit many of the sites of the ex-mission towns.[...] a significant contribution to the ongoing debate over the long-term implications of 1492 for the indigenous population of the Americas." - Simon Ditchfield, in: The English Historical Review, 132:559 (2017), pp. 1601–1602 [https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cew358]