The Pombal towns of the captaincy of the Rio Negro and Pará (1755 - 1798): indigenous integration policies, negotiations and conflicts

• Grant number: 15/26605-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: April 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: André Roberto de Arruda Machado
• Grantee: Augusto Nalini Aigner de Paula
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project discusses attempts to integrate indigenous populations to the Portuguese world, from the split of Pombal policies in the captaincy of Rio Negro and Pará in the second half of the eighteenth century. To do so, take the newly created villages and places of these two captaincies as analysis, dealing specifically with indigenous social roles, constructed and reinvented, when the publication of the laws of 1755 and Pombal's Directory operative in 1757-1798.Remembering that, among other things, this legislation sought to put in place the interest of the metropolis to reinforce territorial occupation, especially in the north and in border areas, and convert the Indian into the kings vassal, in an attempt to include them on this colonial project. For many years, historiography has focused on analyzes that simply decreed the end of these indigenous peoples, whether by armed confrontations or by the understanding that the mere incorporation of these individuals to Pombal's villages meant the loss of their status as indigenous. On the contrary, this research aligns with new studies that intend to see how the Indians interpreted these approaches and reinvent their identities and hierarchies.To develop this discussion, we will address primarily three sets of documents: the first of them it is the official documentation of the Overseas Council, among others, meets population maps, crafts, letters, diaries of expeditions and is digitized by Project Rescue. The second set of documents consists of reports of administrative officials, clergy, judges and military, responsible, among other things, the task description and geographic record of the captaincy, population survey and investigation of the possibilities of mineral and farm. All accounts that are searched are published. Finally, the Pombal's indigenous law also published will be checked.