THESIS AND DISSERTATIONS

A capable vassal in the Amazon valley (or the known Landi): another meaning of the description of plants and animals of the Grão-Pará

Wesley Oliveira Kettle

wesleycx@yahoo.com.br. Master Dissertation, Post-Graduate Program in Social History of the Amazon, Federal University of Pará, Belém (Pará) - Brazil 2010

Drawn up amid the interventions of the Portuguese administration in the Amazon Valley, Antonio Landi's "Descrição de várias Plantas, Frutas, Animais, Aves, Peixes, Cobras, raízes, e outras coisas semelhantes que se acham nesta Capitania do Grão Pará", written between 1772 and 1773, has been seen by Historiography as a result of the interests of the Portuguese Crown. This present work has as object of study such description, providing a distinct understanding of the commonly accepted one: "Descrição das plantas e animais da capitania do Grão Pará" emerged as a logical extension of the Metropolitan policies. Thus, it is not a formulation suggested or determined by the colonial bureaucracy, but a work motivated by colonial demands. Moreover, this dissertation aimed to understand the intents which were proper of the Italian architect's condition of settler, avoiding to conceive his production as a naturalist only as a reflection of the scientific thinking in Europe. Formerly, seeking to understand this activity as something related to the context of the local colonial dynamics. Thus, this study seeks to demonstrate that the practices and specific shapes of the Amazon Valley society were instrumental in the development of Antonio Landi's Natural History work.