Short Abstract:
Throughout the 17th and 18th century, the settlement of the Amazon region by the Portuguese led to a society characterized both by its connections to other Portuguese territories, mainly through the Atlantic Ocean, and by the central role played by rivers in the occupation of this vast territory.
Long Abstract:
Throughout the 17th and 18th century, the settlement of the Amazon region by the Portuguese led to a society characterized both by its connections to other Portuguese territories, mainly through the Atlantic Ocean, and by the central role played by rivers in the occupation of this vast territory. Rivers were the means of communication along which peoples of different origins were connected, whether they were Indians, Creoles, Africans, Mestizos, and Europeans (since the Amazon region was vast frontier). At the same time in the colonial Amazon region, rivers became a creative and fertile space for the development of agriculture, of cultures, societies and social practices. Our aim is to discuss the specificities of colonial Amazonia where rivers and oceans took part in the shaping of colonial society and economy. Thus, we seek to understand the colonial Amazonia as society defined by its links to the Atlantic and the backlands and their many rivers. In fact, in the Amazon region, Portuguese colonization followed the course of rivers, such as many Indian peoples had been doing for centuries. This panel will discuss Amazonian rivers and their use by a variety of social groups in different times, such as the influence of native dynamics in the settlement of the region, the role of rivers for the evangelization of Indian peoples, for the organization of colonial economy, and their influence in social practices in the Amazon region.
Accepted papers:
Session 1
Riverine frontiers in the Lower Amazon. The influence of native dynamics on the Portuguese conquest (17th century)
Pablo Ibáñez-Bonillo
(Universidade Federal do Pará)
Paper short abstract:
The Lower Amazon and its estuary acted as frontier zones since pre-Columbian times as Tupi, Arawak and Carib-speaking societies interacted from the two shores of the river. Europeans inherited this constructed frontier but the Portuguese conquest since 1616 deeply transformed native patterns of integration.
Paper long abstract:
The Portuguese conquest and colonization of Brazil was mediated by the Tupi-Guarani societies that inhabited the Atlantic coast in a discontinuous pattern from the estuary of the River Plate to the mouth of the Amazon. In fact, the extension of Portuguese occupation coincides with the limits of expansion of these Tupi-Guarani societies in most regions, suggesting a historical relation with deep potential implications. This paper explores the conquest and construction of the Portuguese colonial frontier in the Lower Amazon and its estuary at the beginning of the 17th century, aiming to unveil the nature of the relations between Portuguese and Amerindian societies. The starting point is the hypothesis that the presence of Tupinamba societies from the Brazilian northeast, and of many other groups linked with them through language and culture, helped the Portuguese cause in their dispute for the control of the southern Amazon shores with other European competitors. However, this very same dependency on the Tupinamba also acted as a brake on the Portuguese conquest as it headed north. This is supposed by the fact that almost no Tupi-Guarani traces have been recorded on the northern shore of the Amazon, suggesting that the Amazon River acted as a frontier for both the Tupinambá and the Portuguese. This paper analyzes the frontier nature of the river since pre-Columbian times and the transformations provoked by European conquest, as colonial domination put an end to the previous integrative nature of this fluvial frontier.
Imagining Amazonia in Petitions Sent to the Council of the Indies during the Seventeenth Century
Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho
(State University of Rio de Janeiro)
Paper short abstract:
Throughout the seventeenth century, settlers and missionaries assiduously explored the Amazonian lowlands, located east of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The petitions that they sent to the Council of the Indies requested honors and awards for past or planned actions in the frontier.
Paper long abstract:
Throughout the seventeenth century, settlers and missionaries assiduously explored the Amazonian lowlands, located east of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The petitions that they sent to the Council of the Indies requested honors and awards for past or planned actions in the frontier. These documents also described Amazonian Indians and landscapes, relating them to rich imagined territories such as El Dorado and Paititi. In this article, I argue that these images must be understood not as a mythical predisposition, but as a discursive strategy for the negotiation of honors, awards, and privileges between local actors and the Spanish Crown. Although petitions provided information to the Council of the Indies about distant regions and the activities of settlers and missionaries who resided within them, the visions of Amazonian peoples and landscapes that they described were powerfully influenced by the political function of the document.
Paths along the rivers: products, relations and spaces in the Amazon and Eastern Guianas, 1600-1700
Silvia Espelt-Bombin
(University of St Andrews)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the Amerindian pathways used after the arrival of Europeans in the Amazon, and how these paths, the goods traded and the actors participating in the exchanges evolved (or not) between 1600-1700.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the Amerindian pathways used after the arrival of Europeans in the Amazon, and how these paths, the goods traded and the actors participating in the exchanges evolved (or not) between 1600-1700. It seeks to understand more fully the diverse long distance trade routes that originated in, or crossed, the Amazon River and linked it with neighbouring areas as the Eastern Guianas and Lower Amazon tributaris. Its aim is to understand the key social and spatial relations between different European groups and indigenous societies in mobilising people and transporting products. It draws on published accounts and maps, unpublished material from Portuguese, Brazilian, French and Italian archives.
Catechesis upon the waters: rivers and mission in Colonial Amazonia (17th and 18th century)
Karl Heinz Arenz
(Universidade Federal do Pará)
Paper short abstract:
The wide-ranging network of missions, situated on the banks of the Amazon river and its main tributaries, but also along the sea shore, not only concentrated the main labour force, the Indians, but also stabilized the Portuguese dominion over the this frontier region by controlling the waterways.
Paper long abstract:
The wide-ranging network of missions under the control of diverse religious orders, especially the Jesuits, stabilized throughout the 17th and the first half of the 18th century the Portuguese dominion in the still unsecured Amazon Region. The integration of the numerous indigenous peoples into the colonial project in this frontier area was absolutely vital for the authorities and the orders, both as labour force (gathering and/or cultivation of rainforest products, such as cacao, clove bark, sarsaparilla or copaiba oil) and guides of the canoes. The embarkations were indispensable for the transportation of the harvested products, but also of soldiers or missionaries heading upstream into the backlands. Within the labyrinthic system of waterways, which were constantly submitted to modification due to the effects of strong water flow and annual flooding, the contact between the rather isolated colonial establishments - missions, forts and farms - depended on reliable rowers and pilots, known as "jacumaúbas". The paper will discuss the importance of these colonial agents within the region's "fluviality" - rather than territoriality - and, as well, Indian self-assertion, highlighting their relation with the mission system, to which most of them were closely attached. For that reason, chronicles and reports of Jesuit missionaries, mainly João Felipe Bettendorff, José de Morais and João Daniel, are being analyzed to understand more profoundly the rather large scope of activity and the differentiated - and, to a certain extent, ambiguous - status that the indigenous navigators enjoyed within the colonial society, still in way of consolidation during the 17th and 18th century.
A Arte da Cartografia Seiscentista da Amazónia
Edilson Nazaré Motta
(Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
A crítica da arte da cartografia favorece tanto a compreensão de conteúdos factuais históricos e geográficos, quanto a compreensão da dialética de elementos normativos e de mentalidades, como ocorre na Amazónia desde o início da presença europeia do continente.
Paper long abstract:
A crítica da arte da cartografia favorece tanto a compreensão de conteúdos factuais históricos e geográficos, quanto a compreensão da dialética de elementos normativos e de mentalidades, apontando para consciências em tensão entre o eterno e o efêmero, solo de fantasmagorias do paradisíaco e do infernal, da pertença e da exclusão, da proximidade e do distanciamento, da propriedade e da alienação, com as quais são conquistadas regiões do globo, como ocorre na Amazónia desde o início da presença europeia do continente. Neste sentido, podemos levantar a hipótese de que a cartografia portuguesa seiscentista da desembocadura do Amazonas são alegorias. As paisagens que ela mostra apresentam-se tencionadas entre normas rigorosas de representação, modos de reprodução em vias de homogeneização e mentalidades plurais; enquanto comunicam territórios e realidades físicas, sob uma linguagem tecnicamente concebida, e expressam imagens compósitas, cristalizações de mitos de conquista do espaço.
The sea leads to the North: conquering S. Luís, founding Belém (1614-1616)
Luís Sousa
(FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
The proposed communication deals with the process that led to the expulsion of the French from Maranhão (the conquest of the establishment of S. Luís), and successful entry of the Portuguese in the Amazon River (the foundation of the city of Belém).
Paper long abstract:
It is intended to make a brief analysis of the military process that led to the first successful Portuguese colony in the Amazonas river: the foundation of Belém do Pará. This evolved from the early French settlements in the North, and the final establishment in the Maranhão region, and the founding of the city of S. Luís. Initially, the Portuguese were slow to react. Quite surprisingly, it was during the dual monarchy that they mounted an expedition designed to occupy the northernmost part of Brazil, that ultimately established of the formal frontier with the Spanish America. The confrontation between the two rival European powers took place in a physical space that favored the adaptation of means and attitudes to a wide geographical diversity, underlining three main elements: the versatility and limitations of modern fortification in Brazil, the role of local warriors in adapting of the European war to a completely different tactical environment that included a vast net of watercourses, and the ever-decisive role of the leaders in the military campaigns, namely the arquitecto-mor Francisco de Frias, the sargento-mor Diogo de Campos Moreno.