Honrarias e mercadorias: os principais indígenas e a formação de alianças na vila de Barcelos (1755-1765)

Abstract

The honors and the merchandises defined the way in which the relations of alliances between the main indigenous people and the Portuguese were configured in the Rio Negro during the second half of the eighteenth century, a period in which the region underwent profound changes as a result of the Pombaline reforms and the geopolitical conflicts on the borders of the Northwest Amazon. In view of this, the present dissertation aims to analyze the role of the concessions of honors and the negotiations of goods in the formation of alliances with the main indigenous people in the village of Barcelos, between 1755 and 1765. Through the analysis of the official documentation and the specialized bibliography, we sought to verify how the advances of the urban projects that aimed to reform the entire urban network of the territory of the village of Mariuá to consolidate it into the village of Barcelos and capital of the Captaincy of São José do Rio Negro, led the Principals to become the primary agents in the intermediation of the descents and the control of the indigenous labor exploited in this work front, which led the Portuguese to use honorific titles and colonial objects again as essential strategies in establishing alliances with such authority figures. In the wake of this process, we sought to ascertain the role of the granting of honors in the maintenance of indigenous alliances and the performance of colonial leaders, under the honorific title of Principal, in administrative and military functions and in the management of indigenous labor within the colonial space of Barcelos, as well as in independent trade relations. Then, we also analyzed the bargaining of merchandises that aimed to conquer the alliances of the Principals considered influential among the natives they led and indispensable in the middle of the descents to the village. The hypothesis that is intended to be based in this work is that the concessions of honors and the negotiations of merchandises, basic in the formation of alliances with the Principals from the Portuguese perspective, strengthened the political authority of these native leaders both in the colonial village of Barcelos and in the indigenous world located on the Rio Negro.