Scholarship holders

Team

Scientific initiation

Flora Maria Rabioglio Cotrim

Relationships from alliance bonds to wedding bands: Marriages as colonial policies to control indigenous labor, slavery and the occupation of the Amazon

Term 01/09/2023 – 31/08/2024 (CNPq/PIBIC/Unicamp)

This research aims to understand the relationship between Portuguese colonial policies on marriages involving indigenous people and the practices of slavery and occupation of the Amazon territory. By analyzing the body of indigenist legislation and missionary documents in force in the state of Grão-Pará and Maranhão during the period between the beginning of the 17th century, when the projects for the effective occupation of this region began, and the middle of the 18th century, with the Pombaline reforms, the aim is to map the changes that occurred in indigenist marriage policies and the interests of the colonial project that these changes may reveal.

Scientific initiation

Sofia Montaner Preto

The drugs of sertão: a survey of occurrences of plant species in colonial travel accounts and chronicles

Duration 02/05/2024 to 01/05/2025 (FAPESP Process 2024/05635-9)

The aim of the research is to carry out a survey of the occurrence of Amazonian plant species of commercial interest to Europeans in colonial documentation. The aim is to draw up a list of the species mentioned, their possible interest, their exploitation techniques (harvesting or production) and, where possible, their location in the territory. The aim will be to create a glossary of the species and cross-reference the information on location with archaeological data on territorial occupation and the handling of plant species. For the scholarship holder, it will be an opportunity to learn basic research techniques in history and to get to know the bibliography on colonial history from the perspective of the exploitation of plant species.

Doctorate

Talles Manoel da Silva

Indigenous knowledge of plants in the Colonial Amazon (17th and 18th centuries)

Duration 01/03/2024 to 31/07/2028 (FAPESP Process 2024/01523-1)

The research aims to understand how the practices and traditional knowledge of indigenous Amazonian societies (in the states of Grão-Pará and Maranhão) were adapted in the colonial context, being appropriated and used by missionaries and settlers in the harvesting and cultivation of natural resources in the Amazonian sertão. The period to be analyzed ranges from the first systematic attempts to cultivate native plants at the instigation of the Portuguese Crown in the 1670s to the end of the 18th century, seeking to identify the transformations in harvesting, handling and agricultural practices brought about by the Pombaline reforms.

Science Media

Tayná Gonçalves Pinto

Scientific dissemination of the research “Between a deep past and an imminent future: human action and the environmental impact of modern colonialism in the Amazon (16th to 18th centuries)” by the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp

Duration 01/08/2024 to 31/08/2025. (FAPESP Process 2024/08417-2)

The work carried out by the project’s scholarship holder will consist of setting up the project’s website, as well as disseminating the results and content produced during the research. The planned activities should contribute to the scientific and cultural diffusion of the research, focusing on disseminating knowledge of the colonial history of the Brazilian Amazon and its relationship with climate change to a wide audience.

Technical Training

Lucas da Silva Isidorio

Atlas of the Colonial Amazon: creating a cartographic platform as a research tool

Duration 01/11/2024 to 31/10/2025 (FAPESP Process 2024/17060-0)

The work consists of modeling and geoprocessing data originating from various historical sources in order to create geographic data for final products such as a virtual atlas, various types of maps and databases.

Scientific initiation

Felício Antônio Martins Dias

The Cocoa Economy in the Amazon, 17th-18th Centuries

Term 05/2025 – 05/2026 (Funcamp/FAEPEX)

The aim of the research is to carry out a survey of the bibliography and primary sources dealing with the exploitation and cultivation of cocoa in the Portuguese Amazon in the 17th and 18th centuries. The student will work together with a doctoral student who is studying the theme of indigenous knowledge in colonial production and another scientific initiation student (both FAPESP scholarship holders) who studies the occurrence of plant species of interest to the Amazonian economy. The period to be analyzed ranges from the first systematic attempts to cultivate native plants encouraged by the Portuguese Crown in the 1670s to the end of the 18th century, with the boom in cocoa exports from Amazonian ports.

Doctorate

Marcela Gomes Fonseca

Urban indigenous people in the Colonial Amazon, 18th century

Term from 01/03/2025 to 31/07/2028. Doctorate/FAPESP

This doctoral project aims to map and describe the work situations of indigenous people in the urban spaces of the Colonial Amazon in the 18th century. Through the analysis of various documental sources, the research seeks to deepen our understanding of the daily life and labor sphere of indigenous people in Amazonian cities, examining various forms of work such as supply, weaving, extraction of natural products, construction and domestic work. The study is important for understanding the fundamental role of indigenous workers in the Amazonian colonial economy and society, filling gaps in historiography and offering insights into the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the region in the 18th century, as well as exploring the transfer and adaptation of traditional knowledge in the colonial context.

Master's Degree

Gisele de Oliveira Bezerra

“Useless people”? The role of indigenous elders in the colonial Amazon

Term 03/2025 to 03/2027 – Funcamp/Master’s Degree

The aim of the research is to analyze the indigenous individual in colonial Amazonian society, from the 17th to the 18th centuries, based on an age category. This specific scope, which highlights the category of indigenous elders, will investigate the presence of this group in colonial situations, mainly related to work. To this end, research will be carried out on a wide range of documentary typologies, with the final product being the researcher’s dissertation.

Social Aid

Ridalia Aparecida Martins Pereira Luãh Marcello Dias Kilderes Fontoura De Souza

Mapping information on localities, indigenous peoples and botanical references in travel texts on the Amazon (16th-19th centuries)

Social Aid Scholarship/Unicamp Duration 01/03/2025 to 28/02/2027

The project aims to investigate and systematize data from the accounts of travelers and chorographers who explored the Amazon between the 16th and 19th centuries. Information will be collected on locations, indigenous peoples and plant species mentioned, with the intent to create a historical and geographical database. The activities include surveying and analyzing historical sources, georeferenced mapping of the locations described, indigenous peoples and botanical references. In the end, it is hoped to produce an accessible database, an interactive map and publications that will contribute to an understanding of the history and ethnobotany of the region.

We investigate the socio-environmental impact of modern colonialism in the Amazon

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