The National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute and the indigenous heritage: a silence and the architecture (1937-1988)

• Grant number: 21/01418-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: January 01, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Silvana Barbosa Rubino
• Grantee: Luana Espig Regiani
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/16210-3 - The Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) and the indigenous heritage: silence, architecture, and international approaches, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This research intends to study how the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional - IPHAN) acted on the notion of indigenous heritage - especially architecture - between 1937 and 1988. Since its foundation, IPHAN has captained the historical construction of an authentic Brazilian past. It is evident, however, the particular obfuscation that the institute engenders on Amerindian memory: although recognized as a founder, it had a space inferior to the European colonial legacy. This silence can be demonstrated by the absence of initiatives to list indigenous goods in the period, by little sensitive opinions on the issue, in addition to the rare financing of tours and rare representation of articles on the topic in the official magazine of the agency. The hypothesis is that this deprecation is not accidental: there was an inadequacy of the institute about the theme, which did not fit within a unifying and representative narrative of a modern country. This malaise led to intense debates with other institutions in the period, especially the National Museum, which makes the history of indigenous heritage at IPHAN the subject of intellectual confrontations that permeated different Brazilian cultural instances. The intention is to complete IPHAN's activities in the first five decades of its activity, in the period preceding the new protection policies discussed by the 1988 Constitution, using documents, images, drawings, and texts.