Angolan Materia Medica: Processes of circulation, construction and reconfiguration of medical knowledge in Angola in the first half of 18th century.

• Grant number: 18/11552-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Science
• Principal Investigator: Iris Kantor
• Grantee: Gisele Cristina da Conceição Bracht
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Covering the period between 1706 and 1777, this project intends to study the processes of construction of medical knowledge in Angola, by focusing in dynamics of circulation and reconfiguration of knowledge. It is assumed that the knowledge produced in the colonial spaces effectively circulated within the Empire. This dynamic was partially due to the circulation of the producing agents, being they military, State commissioners or physicians. In this context, power relations, cultural exchanges and negotiation processes between Europeans and local populations emerge as major assets to understand knowledge construction processes. These processes are the focus of new historiographical trends, which analyze the influence of local factors, inherent to each community and thus, the importance of its producers identity on the one hand, and their motivations and interlocutors on the other. As empirical sources we will analyze works written by agents who lived in Angola and, consequentially, contacted local peoples, maladies and healing practices. Two works were already previously selected. From Francisco de Buytrago - Árvore da Vida (1731), and Francisco Damião Cosme - Tratado das queixas endémicas e mais fatais nesta conquista (1770). Therefore, the aim of this project is to contribute to the "state of the art", trying to better understand the production process of medical knowledge within the colonial spaces, considering dynamics of circulation and reconfiguration.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GISELE C. CONCEIÇÃO. “Um manual que todos possam usar”: O conhecimento indígena sobre plantas medicinais do Brasil setecentista e as observações filosófico-naturais de Domingos Alves Branco Muniz Barreto. História, v. 40, 2021-11-12. (18/11552-8)