Palavras e almas

The paper discusses the different conceptions of word and soul in the cultural tradition of the Guarani and in the cultural tradition of the Jesuit missionaries who lived with them in Latin American territories, especially in the territories of the so-called Jesuit Province of Paraguay. To this end, sources produced by authors who lived with the native populations in different historical periods and gathered direct testimonies from them on the themes of the word and the soul were studied, on the one hand, and Jesuit sources on the subject, on the other. The analysis highlights the existence of profound differences between the conceptions of the Guarani and the Jesuits; the reciprocal appropriations; and also the similarities.