Mickaël Orantin
Research
Research themes
- Jesuit missions of Paraguay
- Guaranis
- Indigenous languages
- Modern history of spanish America
- History of work and labor
Current Project
My research focuses on the indigenous populations of the Spanish Empire during the modern
period, mainly the Jesuit missions of Paraguay (17th-18th centuries). I preend de-exoticize these
populations, too often essentialized in historiography and anthropological research. I’m studying
the diversity of indigenous groups living in the Iberian American space, as well as the different
types of relations both between these groups and Europeans populations, analyzing and
translating documents written in European languages and in indigenous language (colonial
Guarani). At the moment, I’m working on a database of censuses taken in several Jesuit missions
in Paraguay in the 18th century, to determine the rate of permanence of native families in these
establishments over time, and to assess the success of evangelization.
Bio
My research focuses on the indigenous populations of the Spanish Empire during the modern
period, mainly the Jesuit missions of Paraguay (17th-18th centuries). I preend de-exoticize these
populations, too often essentialized in historiography and anthropological research. I’m studying
the diversity of indigenous groups living in the Iberian American space, as well as the different
types of relations both between these groups and Europeans populations, analyzing and
translating documents written in European languages and in indigenous language (colonial
Guarani). At the moment, I’m working on a database of censuses taken in several Jesuit missions
in Paraguay in the 18th century, to determine the rate of permanence of native families in these
establishments over time, and to assess the success of evangelization.
Media
Publications
Articles
- ORANTIN, Mickaël, La cloche,le rabot et la houe : fragments d’un quotidien de travail dans les missionsjésuites du Paraguay (1714 ?), Paris, Presses de l’INALCO, 2020, 238 p.
- ORANTIN, Mickaël, « Remarques sur le verbe “vendre”: dire l’échange marchand en guarani dans les
missions jésuites du Paraguay (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle) », L’Homme, 2020, n° 1, p. 75-104. - ORANTIN, Mickaël, ZUBIZARETTA, Joaquín Ruiz, « Poraka ? C’est comme nourrir celui qui a tué
notre mère… » Parenté, pouvoir et partage dans les missions guaranis du Paraguay (XVIIIe siècle)
à l’aune de l’ethnologie et de la lexicographie diachronique », Journal de la Société des
américanistes, 2021, 107-2, p. 115-139. - ORANTIN, Mickaël, « Humility and Laziness: The Two Faces of the Poor in Paraguay’s Jesuit Missions ?
(Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) », Journal of Jesuit Society, april 2023, vol. 10, Brill, p.
258–277. https://doi.org/10.1163/22141332-10020004 - ORANTIN, Mickaël, « Raison pratique et raison lexicographique. Un grand partage. Débat autour du livred’Alexandre Surrallés, La Raison lexicographique. Découverte des langues et origine de l’anthropologie,Paris, Fayard, 2023 », L’homme, 2024, 250, p. 39-52.