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The Guarayo of Bolivian Amazonia maintain a paradoxical relationship with the Franciscan missionaries who converted them to Christianity in the 19th century. They feel quite attached to these priests, whom they consider as founders of their communities. However, they also assert that the priests’ actions have been culturally destructive and socially violent, while many Franciscans themselves often infringed Catholic rules (debauchery, polygamy, sorcery). The position of the priest within Guarayo social morphology, both central and exterior to it, accounts for this paradoxical relationship.