Abstract
Following William Denevan’s bluff model of riverine settlement, this chapter considers the historical role the floodplain of the Lower Amazon has played in the colonial and postcolonial history of the region. In particular, I focus on the complementarity of the floodplain and the terra firme’s settlement during the period of intense colonization of riverine areas. By looking at colonial land records, census data, and economic activities, I argue that the floodplain assumed a special significance in the late colonial period, which made the dual strategy on behalf of individual families neither possible nor desirable. The balance between the zones was complicated by the inclusion of the region in world markets, the development of its own interior trade networks, and the development of a riverine peasantry focused on the floodplain. The ecological complementarity was superseded by economic and political factors that happened to promote the floodplain.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The following sketch is concerned with the people who were a core part of colonial life—the workers, slaves, and planters. It does not address the early conquest period and any continuity it may have had with either the precolonial or late colonial era. Sources for the ethnohistorical study of the Lower Amazon can be found in Sweet (1974), Menendez (1992) and Porro (1993).
- 2.
See Vila de Santarém, pp. 151–153 in the ‘Census Tables,’ Governor of the Rio Negro, João Pereira Caldas, to Governor of Pará, Martinho de Melo e Castro, 22nd June, 1785, Barcelos, AHU Pará Avulsos, Rio Negro, cx. 8, doc. 7509.
- 3.
José Joaquim Pereira do Lago to Governor, Alter do Chão, 10th December 1799, Arquivo Publico do Estado do Pará (APEP) cod. 575, doc. 48. See also ‘Autos de demarcação da terra,’ Óbidos, 19th March 1812, APEP ‘Documentação Juridiciário.’
- 4.
Biblioteca e Archivo Público do Pará (1904), Francisco José de Faria, R. Paraná-Merim de Maracassú, and Francisco José de Faria, districto da Villa de Óbidos, p. 54.
- 5.
Anonymous, ‘Memória de Santarém,’ 1st December 1828, Santarém, APEP cod. 851, doc. 74.
- 6.
The Cabanagem has been the subject of many studies in Brazil but few outside. See, for example, Raiol (1970); Hurley (1936a, b); Moreira Neto (1985); Paolo (1985); Salles (1992); Cleary (1998, 2003); Chasteen (2000). Some parts of the argument in this chapter are elaborated in my book, Rebellion on the Amazon (2010).
References
Alden, D. (1976). The significance of cacao production in the Amazon region during the late colonial period: An essay in comparative economic history. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 120, 2.
Alencar, A., Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Moutinho, P., Pacheco, P., Diaz, M., et al. (2004). Desmatamento na Amazônia: indo além da “emergência crônica”. Belém: IPAM.
Bates, H. W. (1969). The naturalist on the River Amazons. London: Everyman.
Biblioteca e Archivo Público do Pará. (1904). Catálogo nominal dos posseiros de Sesmarias (Vol. 3, pp. 5–159). Belém: Typografia do Instituto do Lauro Sodré.
Boxer, C. (1962). The golden age of Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Buclet, B. (2004). Le Marché International de la Solidarité: Les organisations non gouvernementales en Amazonie Brésilienne. Ph.D. thesis. EHESS, Paris.
Chasteen, J. (2000). Cautionary tale: A radical priest, nativist agitation, and the origin of Brazilian civil wars. In R. Earle (Ed.), Rumours of wars: Civil conflict in nineteenth-century Latin America. London: Institute of Latin American Studies.
Cleary, D. (1998). Lost altogether to the civilised world: Race and the Cabanagem in Northern Brazil, 1750 to 1850. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(1), 109–135.
Cleary, D. (2001). Science and the representation of nature in Amazônia: From La Condamine through Da Cunha to Anna Roosevelt. In I. Vieira et al. (Eds.), Diversidade Biológica e Cultural da Amazônia. Belém: Museu Goeldi.
Cleary, D. (Ed.). (2003). Cabanagem: Documentos ingleses. Belém: SECULT.
Denevan, W. M. (1996). A bluff model of riverine settlement in prehistoric Amazônia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86, 654–681.
Edwards, W. (1847). A voyage up the river Amazon including a residence at Pará. London: John Murray.
Fernandes de Souza, A. (1848). Noticias geographicas da capitania do rio Negro no grande Rio Amazonas. RIHGB, 10, 410–504.
Ferreria Penna, D. S. (1869). A região occidental da provincia do Pará. Belém: Typographia de Diario do Belem.
Gomes, F. (2002). A ‘safe haven’: Runway slaves, Mocambos, and borders in colonial Amazônia, Brazil. Hispanic American Historical Review, 82(3), 469–498.
Harris, M. (2010). Rebellion on the Amazon: Race, popular culture and the Cabanagem in the North of Brazil. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hemming, J. (1978). Red gold: The conquest of the Brazilian Indians. London: Macmillan.
Hemming, J. (1987). Amazon frontier: The defeat of the Brazilian Indians. London: Macmillan.
Hurley, J. (1936a). A Cabanagem. Belém: Livraria Clássica.
Hurley, J. (1936b). Traços Cabanos. Belém: Oficina Gráfica do Instituto Lauro Sodré.
Jorge dos Santos, F. (1999). Além da conquista: Guerras e rebeliões indígenas na Amazônia Pombalina. Manaus: Editora da Universidade do Amazonas.
Le Cointe, P. (1911). Carte du bas Amazone de Santarém à Parintins. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin.
Maw, H. L. (1829). Journal of a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. London: John Murray.
Mello e Souza, L. (2004). The devil and the land of the holy cross: witchcraft, slavery, and popular religion in colonial Brazil. Texas: Texas University Press.
Menendez, M. (1992). A área Madeira-Tapajós: Situação de contato e relações entre o colonizador e indígena. In M. Carneiro da Cunha (Ed.), História dos Indios do Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Monteiro, J. (1994). Negros da terra. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Morreira Neto, C. (1985). Indios da Amazônia, de maioria a minoria, 1750–1850. Petropolis: Vozes.
Nugent, S. (1993). Amazon Caboclo society: An essay on invisibility and peasant economy. Oxford: Berg.
Paolo, P. (1985). Cabanagem: a revolução popular da Amazônia. Belém: Conselho de Cultura (1985).
Porro, A. (1993). As crônicas do Rio Amazonas. Vozes: Petrópolis.
Raiol, D. A. (1970). [1865–1890] Motins politicos ou historia dos principais acontecimentos politicos da Provincia do Pará, desde o ano de 1821 até 1835 (Vol. 3 vols). Belém: Universidade Federal do Pará.
Raffles, H. (2002). In Amazonia: A natural history. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Salles, V. (1992). Memorial da Cabanagem. Belém: CEJUP.
Smith, H. (1879). Brazil, the Amazons and the coast. New York: Scribner’s Sons.
Sommer, B. (2000). Negotiated settlements: Native Amazonians and Portuguese policy in Pará, Brazil, 1758–1798. Ph.D. thesis, University of New Mexico.
Sommer, B. (2004). Colony of the Sertão: Amazonian expeditions and the Indian slave trade. The Americas, 61(3), 401–28.
Souza, I. (2003). O Cacaulista. Belem: UFPa.
Sweet, D. (1974). A rich realm of nature destroyed. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin.
Watts, J. (2005). A hunger eating up the world. The Guardian, London. http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1638858,00.html. Cited 10 November, 2005.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Harris, M. (2011). The Floodplain of the Lower Amazon as a Historical Place. In: Pinedo-Vasquez, M., Ruffino, M., Padoch, C., Brondízio, E. (eds) The Amazon Várzea . Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0146-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0146-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0145-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0146-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)