Migrações, populações indígenas e etno-genese na América Portuguesa (Amazônia Colonial, s. XVIII)

Abstract

We still know little about the expectations, identities, perceptions and policies of the indigenous populations involved in colonial processes. In different parts of the vast Amazon region – particularly areas where there were missionary villages and compulsory labor, as well as economic ties – there are records of increased numbers of escapes and the establishment of new communities by these fugitives in a process of ethno-genesis that is still little understood. In this paper, I analyse the interfaces between Indianist and indigenous policies in the colonial Amazon. We know very little about how countless indigenous societies and micro-societies – as well as colonial sectors, including recently arrived enslaved Africans – perceived colonization policies on the basis of their own logic and cultures, adapting patterns of settlement, migration, kinship, geographic shifts, funeral practices.