A flight over histories: about indians and historians in Brazil and America

Abstract

Brazilian and North American historiography share many aspects when it comes to indigenous issues. In both cases, the histories of native groups changed the ways of producing knowledge about them, creating and transforming public policy. Games of complex influences guided the ways of dealing with the knowledge about inter-ethnic relations. In many cases, such knowledge served as a fulcrum for the survival of the implicated groups. Historiographical trajectories, here and there, are full of convergence, divergence, dynamism and political complexity. That said, the purpose of this article is to present a vision of the two parallel processes of construction of historical discourses about Indians and trace from there, agendas and possibilities of mutual contributions.