New world of gain : Europeans, Guaraní, and the global origins of modern economy / Brian P. Owensby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owensby, Brian P., 1959- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Exchange--Paraguay--History.

Exchange.

Guarani Indians--Paraguay--History.

Guarani Indians.

Reciprocity (Psychology)--Paraguay--History.

Reciprocity (Psychology).

White people--Paraguay--Relations with Indians--History.

White people.

Economics--Moral and ethical aspects.

Economics.

Paraguay--History--To 1811.

Paraguay.

Paraguay--Ethnic relations--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (400 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In the centuries before Europeans crossed the Atlantic, social and material relations among the indigenous Guaraní people of present-day Paraguay were based on reciprocal gift-giving. But the Spanish and Portuguese newcomers who arrived in the sixteenth century seemed interested in the Guaraní only to advance their own interests, either through material exchange or by getting the Guaraní to serve them. This book tells the story of how Europeans felt empowered to pursue individual gain in the New World, and how the Guaraní people confronted this challenge to their very way of being. Although neither Guaraní nor Europeans were positioned to grasp the larger meaning of the moment, their meeting was part of a global sea change in human relations and the nature of economic exchange. Brian P. Owensby uses the centuries-long encounter between Europeans and the indigenous people of South America to reframe the notion of economic gain as a historical development rather than a matter of human nature. Owensby argues that gain—the pursuit of individual, material self-interest—must be understood as a global development that transformed the lives of Europeans and non-Europeans, wherever these two encountered each other in the great European expansion spanning the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.

Contents:

Introduction : directions

Coming to the encounter

The new world of gain

Limits of law, love, and conscience

Beyond predation

The Guaraní mission world

Good economy of the state

From community to liberty

The only example in the history of the universe

Conclusion : reflections

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 10. Jan 2022)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503628342

1503628345

OCLC:

1243909119