This paper deals with the interactions between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in the south of Espírito Santo (southeast coast of Brazil) in the 18th and 19th centuries, from an interpretative archaeology's approach combined with theories about the agency of humans and objects. The first part is a critical discussion on the epistemological asymmetry established and sustained through centuries of colonialism, amongst the local histories and the history of the American colonization by the westerners. A case study presents how the same metanarrative for the western impact over native populations, considered culturally static and socially passive, works in current archaeological theoretical models and in the 19th century nationalist discourse about the conquest of indigenous people in Espírito Santo, Brazil. In sequence, the paper brings forward an alternative perspective for studying the 18th century tupi material apparatus, with attention to the indigenous notion of reciprocity and to the potential of the material world to mobilize collective actions. We seek to discuss the tupi action during the european colonization according to the interpretative context arranged for the study of Espírito Santo's archaeological sites, as well as the pottery, lithics, manuscripts and maps of that period.
Tupi; Interpretative archaeology; Collective action; Predation; Colonialism
