| Summary: | The case of Matará, pueblo de indios settled around the 1650’s in the Chaco borderland, is singular in the colonial jurisdiction of Santiago del Estero. Its inhabitants, although identified as “tonocotés”, were not natives but moved there from the hinterland of Concepción del Bermejo city, which had been destroyed in 1633. The mataraes, separated in two parcialidades, acted as brokers between the Christian Indians and the “wild” ones. The purpose of this paper is to point out the different meanings of these broker roles throughout three centuries. I will examine three issues): the mataraes as guides in the missional and war entradas in the wild Chaco, their role as merchants – commerce was their main and most autonomous activity in the context of the encomienda system - and their military role. On account of these brokers’ skills, the frontier´s situation of the hamlet and certain cultural traits, the mataraes were perceived as halfway between “Christians” and “Gentiles”. This contrast lasted very long, even after the end of the pueblo de indios of Matará in the second decade of the 19th century.
|
|---|