Paper short abstract:

Besides understanding quilombos and maps as embodiments of cross-cultural, social, and political conflicts inherent in the Portuguese colonization of Brazil, the paper will examine the conflicts intrinsic to the objects represented, the modes of representation, and the relationships between them.

Paper long abstract:

Linking architecture and mapping, the aim of this paper is to analyze how the Portuguese maps made ​​with the intention of documenting the quilombos replenish the tensions inherent to European colonization, especially Portuguese, of Brazil from the sixteenth century, focusing particularly on conflicts intrinsic to the occupation and the representation of the territory by European, African and indigenous groups.

Tensions and conflicts emerge from the objects represented on these maps: the spaces of resistance to the colonial order (political, economic, social, cultural) configured from various constructive and spatial references - African, European and native -, characterizing a complex landscape, urban and architectural derived from the multiple populations of quilombos, composed of different marginalized groups in the colonial system: mainly ex-slaves (former African and african descent), but also by Indians and even Europeans.

Tensions and conflicts are also observable in this Portuguese carthographic culture, either from the goals of these drawings - to visualize in order to know, dominate and destroy - either from the more or less abstract modes of representing space and place, combining ancient and modern systems of visualization.

In this sense, despite the differences and even the opposition between these objects, their authors and audiences, both quilombos and maps can be understood as embodiments of cross-cultural, social, and political conflicts. Therefore, the conflicts between the represented objects and the modes of representation will be explored by the paper.