Between official correspondence and a governor's diary: indigenous and indigenist policy in the government of the 4th Morgado de Mateus in São Paulo (1765-1775)

• Grant number: 25/23244-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: March 01, 2026
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Denise Aparecida Soares de Moura
• Grantee: Luiza Paula Monteiro Mota
• Supervisor: Andrea Mariani
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fundação Casa De Mateus, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 25/04685-5 - Agency, negotiation and political duty: indigenous and indigenist policies in the government of Morgado de Mateus (São Paulo, 1765-1775), BP.MS

Abstract

This project is linked to ongoing master's research, which aims to understand and be able to analytically describe the indigenous policy practiced in the captaincy of São Paulo between 1765-1775 and its influence on the indigenist policy of Governor D. Luis Antonio de Souza Botelho Mourão, the 4th Morgado de Mateus. His government was responsible for executing an extensive mapping process of a vast region of the captaincy situated between the Paranapanema and Iguaçu rivers and came into contact with indigenous groups and factions speaking Tupi-Guarani and Jê. This research project aims to work with the documentation of this governor and the Marquis of Pombal, which are preserved in collections located in public and private institutions in Portugal. The theoretical and methodological framework for gathering and analyzing data from the selected sources comes from ethnohistory and microhistory, such as concepts of indigenous agency and studies of everyday cases. The procedure of reading against the grain of information from the sources, which has been applied since the undergraduate research phase, will allow for the prioritization of indigenous policy in order to understand indigenist policy. At this stage of the project, we also aim to gather textual and visual documents, especially maps, which may have been instruments for this governor to map and visualize the indigenous populations with which he would have to deal during his government. (AU)