Regional Interaction in the Western Amazon: The Early Colonial Encounter and the Jesuit Years: 1538-1767

In the Western Amazon, long-distance trade networks of precolonial origin remained significant throughout the colonial period. A reconstruction of the regional exchange system suggests that trade was controlled by riverine peoples and by border intermediaries trading interregionally. Ways in which Jesuit missions and colonial traders triggered a transformation of regional exchange are analysed. It is suggested that data on trade networks yield significant insights into the cultural dynamics through which European contact transformed inter-indegenous relations.