Objects of Stereotype: the role of material culture in the construction of the 16th century imaginary of Brazilian indigenous people

Abstract

With the opening of the Atlantic routes and the encounter between Europeans and indigenous populations, several sources and information started to circulate about the inhabitants of the New World. Literary accounts, graphic representations and ethnographic objects began to be disseminated, greatly influencing the construction of stereotypical, generic and often ambiguous representations. The text focuses on the Brazilian context, considering objects – such as those made with feather and weapons – that are still quite popular in the global imaginary. The way Europeans perceived them, on the one hand reflected the contradictions of theological and philosophical speculation, while on the other hand bound them to the categories of wonder, curiosity and alterity. In this paper, we shall analyze how collecting these objects, their recontextualization and their comparison with literary and graphic sources influenced the way in which the European imaginary invented and freeze framed a composite portrait of indigenous people.