Mapping Amazon: indigenous societies and development challenges at the Brazilian last frontier

In this presentation, I will analyze different approaches and interpretations of the route through the rivers of Negro and Branco. From the XVIIIth to the XXth century, this area was a subject of numerous research travels and is described in various documents such as maps, notebooks, and scientific reports. These documents describe its population, territory, diseases, culture, nature, etc. and mobilized the argument of the “discovery” of the pioneering to conceiving an imaginary definition of what would be the “last frontier” of Brazil. In order to investigate how the European travelers showed the presence of the indigenous societies, I will focus on two of these cartographic representations: 1) by Robert-Hermann Schomburgk, who traveled the rout between 1838 and 1839, covering Negro River, Branco River, and 2) from 1911, based on Theodor Koch-Grünberg’s voyage from Manaus to the headwaters of the Branco River. Both explorers have done similar journeys crossing the Território do Rio Branco, British Guiana, and Venezuela, returning to Manaus via the Negro River. Besides, I am going to focus on contemporary challenges, by presenting development projects in Amazon indigenous reserves, establishing investigative bridges between past expeditions and some current enterprises (such as the controversial Belomonte hydroelectrical plant; the recent fires and deforestation records during the new government).

Dr Patricia Aranha is a postdoctoral scholar at the Faculty of History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. She is also affiliated with the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Berlin and at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. Patricia hold a Ph.D. in history by Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2017), a master in History of Sciences by Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (2011), and graduated in history by Universidade Federal Fluminense (2008). She was a researcher at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, State University of New York and Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ. Dr Aranha research is on the politics of knowledge and geographical interpretations of Brazil, from the 18th century naturalists’ expeditions, Roosevelt-Rondon Expeditions in the early 1900’s, to constitution of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE - Brazilian agency specialized in geography, borders, statistic and territorial planning) and the Geography course at the universities, in the 1930’s.