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The Franciscan missionary Nicolás Armentia (1845-1909) was born in Spain and entered the Franciscan order in France in 1860. He studied philosophy, theology, and geography. In 1864 he was sent to the College of the Propaganda of the Faith in La Paz (Bolivia), where he completed his theological studies and was ordained a priest in 1869. He began his missionary work in the missions of Tumupasa (1871-1873) and Covendo (1873-1880). Between 1881 and 1886 he broadened his ethnological knowledge by carrying out several expeditions in the Bolivian Amazon. Armentia’s scientific contribution is ethnological, historical and linguistic. Armentia died in La Paz in 1909.

Keywords: Amateur ethnographer | Christian missions | Missionary | Clergyman | 19th century | Bolivia | Amerindian studies

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