Copyright by Sarasvati De Araujo Bacellar 2012
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Copyright by Sarasvati de Araujo Bacellar 2012 The thesis committee for Sarasvati de Araujo Bacellar Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Surrounding Amazonia: The 1637-39 Teixeira Expedition, Knowledge and Representation APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: _______________________________________ Seth W. Garfield Co-Supervisor: ____________________________________ Maria F. Wade Surrounding Amazonia: The 1637-39 Teixeira Expedition, Knowledge and Representation by Sarasvati de Araujo Bacellar, BS Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin December 2012 Jai Ganesha, Kala Bharava, Haygreeva Parvati, Laskhmi, Saraswati, Radha, Krishna, Guruve Acknowledgements I acknowledge this work was possible because of the constant support of many people. It would be impossible to name them all, but it is important to say that teachers, professors, colleagues and friends were part of the formation of my mind as much as books and years of studies. In addition, I thank the LLILAS Institute Program, which provides not only financial support to many of its students, but most of all provides an inspiring environment to the pursuit of intellectual dreams. I would like to thank Dr. Hale, Dr. Dietz, and Kimberly, and all the stuff of the Institute, specially the librarians who were always very helpful and kind. Also, thank you so much my supervisors Dr. Garfield for his patience and strong support, and Dr. Wade, who endured extensive corrections on my drafts, and was like an intellectual mother in Austin. I cannot express in words, especially because- my English is not that good - all my gratitude for their support. Finally, I would like to thank my beloved family: my mom and my grand- mother, who I missed to complete this work, my dad, and friends for all their affection and appreciation. Love you all! v Surrounding Amazonia: The 1637-39 Teixeira Expedition, Knowledge and Representation By Sarasvati de Araujo Bacellar, MA The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Seth W. Garfield Co-supervisor: Maria F. Wade Abstract This Master’s Thesis investigates the 1637-39 Teixeira’s expedition and how it transformed the Amazon region at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It assumes that this expedition was a key historical event to challenge the balance of power in the area. It shows through historical documents how ethno-geographic knowledge was an essential tool in the discursive construction of the Amazon Natives, undermining their cultural landscapes and initiating the process by which geographical knowledge enabled European territorial power. Foucault’s framework to approach and expound on the relationship between knowledge and power is the theoretical system of analysis that helps to understand the meaning embedded in the historical documents under scrutiny. vi Table of Contents List of figures…………………………………..…………………………………. viii Chapter One: Introduction….……………….…………..……………………….… 1 Historiography and Sources……………………………………….. 8 Methodology……………………………………...……………..... 14 Outline……………………………………………………….….... 18 Chapter Two: On the way to Quito..…..……………………………………………21 Preparing the stage ……………………………………………..… 22 The Dutch and other problems ………………….……………..…. 28 The expedition …………………………………………….…..….. 40 Chapter Three: Rewriting the expedition…………………………………………...63 On the context of the Rojas Report ………………………..……... 64 Providing Geographical and Ethnographical Details …………….. 67 Re-writings: the Expedition and the Native ……………………… 83 Mapping the other side …………………………………………… 90 Chapter Four: Behind Ethno-Geography………..…………….....………..……….99 The Spanish Conquest ………………………………………...…. 101 The Jesuit Discovery: On the Realm of Geo-ethnography …….... 114 Geopolitics of Ethnography: The Memorial …………………….. 125 Chapter Fiver: Final Discussion..…………..…………………………..…….… 136 Modes of Discourse.…………………………………………… 138 Conclusion.………………...………………………….……….. 143 Bibliography…....……………………………………………………………….. 145 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1_ Detail of the Atlantic coast, Sebastião Lopes, [1558]. ………………………………………………………………………………………... 5 Figure 1.2_Maps attached to the English translation [1698] of Acuña’s report. ………………………………………………………………………………………... 14 Figure 1.3_ Detail of the Atlantic coast, João Teixeira Albernás, [1667]. .……………………………………………………………………………………….. 20 Figure 2.1_ Sketch map of the Amazon River from Quito to Pará, [May 22, 1637]. ………………………………………………………………………………………... 27 Figure 2.2_ Portuguese descriptive Map of the Pará River, and the Amazon River, [1623-24] …………...…..……………………………………………………………………….. 30 Figure 2.3_ Sketch map indicating the probable areas of the French, Dutch, and English attacks; São Luís do Maranhão, Lima, Quito, the Teixeira’s expedition main navigational course. ………………………………………………………………………….…………..… 31 Figure 2.4_Dutch Publication illustrating the attack on Salvador, [1624]. ……………………………………………………………………………….……….. 32 Figure 2.5_Dutch Brochure, Pernambuco, [1630]. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 33 Figure 2.6_Fortress in Ceará, [1640]. …………………………………………………………………….………………….. 34 Figure 2.7_Ceará, Frans Post, [1637-1645]. …………………………………………………………………….………………….. 35 Figure 2.8_Fortress in Maranhão, [1637-1645]. …………………………………………………………………….………………….. 36 Figure 2.9_ Maranhão, Frans Post, [1637-1645]. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 37 Figure 2.10_Fortress Pará, Algemeen Rijksarchief, [1640]. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 38 Figure 2.11_Facsimile of Teixeira’s report, first page. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 45 Figure 2.12_Tupinambá, Silvano Brownover, [17th century]. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 62 Figure 3.1_ Sketch map of the Amazon River course and hypothetical sources. ……………………………………………………………………….……………….. 68 Figure 3.2_Sketch of the Amazon River area source. ……………………………………………………………………………….……….. 69 Figure 3.3_ Sketch of the Amazon River main trunk, important cities, source and mouth. ………………………………………………………………………….…………….. 70 Figure 3.4_ Sketch of the Amazon Basin drainage. ………………………………………………………………………….…………….. 71 Figure 3.5_Relief Map of Quito area. ………………………………………………………………………………….…….. 72 viii Figure 3.6_Detail of the Quito and Napo areas. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 73 Figure 3.7_ Sketch map of Óbitos area. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 74 Figure 3.8_ Sketch map of the Amazon River mouth area. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 75 Figure 3.9_ Satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon River. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 76 Figure 3.10_ Picture of an Amazon River Island. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 77 Figure 3.11_ Map attached to Rojas’ report. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 85 Figure 3.12_ Portuguese descriptive Map of Pará, João Teixeira Albernaz (sic), o moço, [1627-75]. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 97 Figure 3.14_ Drawing of Indigenous Village. .……………………………………………………………………………………..... 98 Figure 4.1_Front page of Acuña’s report. ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 100 Figure 4.2_ Acuña’s address to the Reader. …………………………………………………………………………………...….. 104 Figure 4.3_Certification of Teixeira of Acuña’s report. …………………………………………………………………………………...….. 105 Figure 4.4_Certification of Padre das Mercedes. ……………………………………………………………………………………..... 106 Figure 4.5_ Page of Acuña’s report. ………………………………………………………………………………………. 113 Figure 4.6_Indigenous productive activities. ………………………………………………………………………………………. 124 Figure 4.7_Acuña’s Memorial first page. ………………………………………………………………………………………. 130 Figure 5.1_ Mestiço, Albrecht Eckhort, [1641]. ………………………………………………………………………………………..144 ix Chapter One: Introduction In 1637, Jácome Raimundo de Noronha, the governor of Maranhão, launched a large expedition to unveil the mysteries of the Amazon River.1 Noronha chose Pedro Teixeira, a career military officer, to command the expedition. The voyage of Teixeira was a key event in the Amazon’s representation. The expedition had important antecedents like the pioneer expeditions of Francisco de Orellana (1542), Lopes de Aguirre (1559), and Domingo Brieva (1636). However, Teixeira was the first one to successfully go from Pará to Quito and back, returning with the knowledge necessary to initiate the European conquest of the Amazon. Subsequent explorers like the Jesuit Samuel Fritz (1707) and the French illuminato Charles Marie de la Condamine (1735) used the geographical and ethnological knowledge acquired in this expedition to present some of the first scientific material about the Amazon region.2 Even today’s scholars are 1 The spelling and the legal designation of Maranhão and Pará, often designated as Sao Luiz do Maranon and Gran Pará (sic), are both inconsistent on the historical documents of the period. The town of São Luís do Maranhão was considered the head of government of the province also called among the Portuguese authorities the colonial State of Maranhão. Frequently Pará was also designated as a province or a captaincy of this State. See the Royal Charter issued in the name of the King by Cyprião de Figueiredo, Lisbon, Novermber 7, 1619, in Lucinda Saragoça, Da "Feliz Lusitânia" aos confins da Amazónia, 1615-62. (Lisbon, Portugal: Edições Cosmos and Câmara Municipal de Santarém, 2000), 264-67. 2 This knowledge is called potential scientific material in reference to historiographical controversies about when we can actually start to talk about modern science. Technically, it is not a good idea to refer to any