REVIEWS

Almeida, Maria Regina Celestino de. Os índios na história do Brasil

Elisa Frühauf Garcia

Associate Professor, Universidade Federal Fluminense. Center of General Studies, Institute of Human Sciences and Philosophy, Gragoatá campus. Block O, 5th floor, Gragoatá. 24210-350 Niterói - RJ - Brazil. [e-mail]

Rio de Janeiro: Ed. FGV, 2010. 168p.

Until very recently Indians were practically absent subjects in our historiography. Relegated to the condition of passive victims of processes of conquest and colonization, their inexorable destination was to disappear as the society around them expanded. In the last two decades, however, significant theoretical and methodological changes, associated with meticulous empirical research have led to the emergence of a new perspective on native populations.

The trajectory of the insertion of Indians in our historiography, covering conceptual changes and advances made in recent research, have been very well summarized by Maria Regina Celestino de Almeida in Os Índios na História do Brasil. Its publication in the History series of the FVG Bolso [pocket books] Collection will without a doubt be of great value to those interested in the question. It also fulfills its function of disseminating knowledge produced in academia. In addition, the launch of the book takes place at an opportune moment. In 2008 the federal government enacted Law 11645, which makes the teaching of indigenous history obligatory in public and private primary and secondary schools. Many teachers are facing difficulties fulfilling this requirement, since it has not yet been properly inserted in undergraduate history courses in Brazil.

The author initiates the book presenting the change in the place occupied by Indians in the history of Brazil, who in her words have moved from 'backstage' to the 'stage' itself. Debating in general terms the principal theoretical and methodological modifications that have allowed this change, she shows how the new perspective about the meanings of culture and identity were fundamental for an alteration in the paradigm of Indian actions in different scenarios. As shown in a clear and concise form in the text, the approximation between history and anthropology, anchored in the dialogue between professionals in these areas, allowed the old notions of culture and identity, previously perceived as "fixed and immutable" (p.21), to be considered as the fruit of historic processes, resulting from the dynamic interactions of different agents involved in specific situations.

Articulating theoretical and methodological questions in recent research on the issue, the author looks at fundamental aspects for the understanding of the place of Indians in Brazilian history, starting with a discussion about the dynamics of wars. Without denying the importance of war for native groups, as demonstrated by authors such as Florestan Fernandes, Regina Celestino emphasizes the impossibility of analyzing them without reference to their context, since after the first contacts and the disputes for American territory, indigenous wars converged with colonials wars. Associated with wars and the construction of colonial society, the authors also deals with the difficult question of the formation of ethnicities, one of the most important current discussions about indigenous peoples. Research about the emergence and operationality of the ethnonyms developed in various regions in the Americas, including Brazil, demonstrate how many ethnicities, previously believed to have existed before contact with Europeans, actually emerged from the process of conquest and different forms of insertion of Indians in colonial society. To exemplify this question the author uses as a database her doctoral thesis, showing how the Temininós, fundamental allies of the Portuguese in Guanabara, were probably no more than a dissident faction of the Tamoios consolidated during the process of conquest.¹

In analyzing the formation of ethnonyms, the author emphasizes how they were interlinked with the domination of indigenous peoples by the colonial state. The creation and crystallization of ethnonyms and the rigid separation of Indians between allies and enemies was a form of classifying the native population and enabling the colonial project through their allocation to determined places in the social hierarchy. Regina Celestino, however, demonstrates very well that this process was more complex, since she also deals with the mechanisms through which the Indians appropriated these categories, using them as a basis to prepare their own strategies to interact with colonial society. After all, as highlighted by John Monteiro, "the tendency to define ethnic groups in fixed categories served not only as an instrument of domination, but also as a parameter for the ethnic survival of indigenous group, supporting a variety of strategies".²

One of the spaces par excellence for the insertion of Indians in colonial society, and consequently, the redefinition of their identities and cultures were the aldeamentos (settlements), analyzed with authority by the author in chapter four. Until very recently our historiography looked at the aldeamentos from the viewpoint of the colonial state, the inhabitants, or the missionaries. They were then defined as spaces for the grouping of Indians from various origins to serve colonial purposes, - allowing both the concentration of the available labor for use in various activities and the implementation of the native catechization project. From this perspective the Indians were always the object of different policies and disputes between determined agents, never active subjects in the construction of space in the aldeamentos. For the author, however, they should also be considered from the point of view of native motivations. Recent research allows us to confirm their interest in these establishments, since they "participated in their construction and were active subjects in the processes of resocialization and catechism" that occurred in those spaces (p.72).

Another important contemporary discussion dealt with in the book, especially in chapters four and five, is the relationship of Indians with colonial directives, articulating with indigenous policies. Once again Regina Celestino redimensions certain historiographic assumptions. Generally speaking, the indigenist policy of the Portuguese crown was presented as inoperative to the extent that it did not valorize colonial practices, especially in relation to the condition of legal liberty granted to the majority of Indians, threatened by the strategies of colonists interested in this labor. However, as Thompson has highlighted rather than just being a mere instrument of domination, legislation is also configured as a field of struggle.³ In this way, like other historic subjects the Indians, despite remaining in a subaltern position, learned to use this for their own interests. As the author shows very well, although colonial indigenist legislation was applied in accordance with conflicts and negotiations involving various agents (principally missionaries, royal employees and colonists), it is essential to consider the role of Indians in this process. In this discussion chapter five, about the implementation of Pombaline policies, acquires fundamental important. The general line of these policies was aimed at the extinction of aldeamento Indians, promoting their dilution in the population as a whole. In the analysis of this legislation, one of the areas most researched by historians of this theme, it is evident that constant negotiation with Indians was one of the main marks in the construction and maintenance of colonial society.

In the final chapter the author looks at the nineteenth century, focusing on the differences between imperial policies in relation to Indians 'of the present' and the place they were given in the national identity then being constructed. The Indians of the present, especially those who lived in villages founded during the colonial period, were to be rapidly integrated in the general population, in accordance with what Pombal had previously ordered. Those Indians not yet fully inserted in colonial society, commonly called 'savages', were to be settled, also with the objective of preparing their dilution in the population, and were implacably combated if they did not accept the settlements and resisted the expansion of occupation. The Empire projected a homogenous population, without space for Indians to remain as a differentiated group. However, an important place was reserved for natives in the past of the young nation. Despite significant divergences, among the intellectuals involved in the construction of national identity there prevailed a proposal attributing Indians an important role in the founding of Brazil, symbolizing their union with the Portuguese.

By looking at the place of Indians in the history of Brazil, including different scenarios, interests and agents, Regina Celestino offers readers an important initiation in the question. After reading her book, it is evident that it does not just involve perceiving the specific histories of different native groups, which was certainly importantly, but also considers them as fundamental agents in the process of the construction of colonial and post-colonial society. Despite facing extremely difficult situations and a series of legal and social reactions, they helped to mark the limits and possibilities of those societies.

NOTES

Submitted in August 2010.

Approved in August 2010.

• 1 ALMEIDA, Maria Regina Celestino de. Metamorfoses indígenas: identidade e cultura nas aldeias coloniais do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional, 2003.
• 2 MONTEIRO, John. Tupis, tapuias e historiadores: estudos de história indígena e do indigenismo. Tese (Livre Docência em Antropologia) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Campinas (SP), 2001, p.58.
• 3 THOMPSON, Edward P. Senhores e caçadores: a origem da lei negra. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1987, p.358.

¹

Almeida, Maria Regina Celestino de.

Metamorfoses indígenas: identidade e cultura nas aldeias coloniais do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional, 2003.

²

Monteiro, John.

Tupis, tapuias e historiadores: estudos de história indígena e do indigenismo. Dissertation (Associate Professorship in Anthropology) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Campinas (SP), 2001, p.58.

³

Thompson, Edward P.

Senhores e caçadores: a origem da lei negra. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1987, p.358.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  26 May 2011
• Date of issue
  June 2010