Warfare archaeology in Brazilian prehistory: an overview

Habitus, 2021

: o artigo propõe apresentar e discutir alguns aspectos envolvendo evidências materiais de guerras e conflitos na pré-história do Brasil. O objetivo é apresentar um quadro, mesmo que parcial, de como atos de violência podem ser observados na cultura material, realizando-se um estado da arte do tema, e propondo perspectivas para o tema e o período apresentados. Se optou por realizar-se uma metodologia transdisciplinar, onde, além da arqueologia, dados históricos e antropológicos contribuem para se refletir sobre o passado pré-colonial brasileiro e as marcas de conflitos deixadas nos registros do passado dos povos indígenas.

The recent history of archaeology in Brazil has been troubled. Brazilian archaeology emerged in the nineteenth century. However, it was only after World War II that it acquired academic status, especially thanks to Paulo Duarte’s initiative. The military coup in April 1964 marked a turning point for the discipline, which tended to follow French humanism inspired by Leroi-Gourhan and human rights respect. From that moment on, the country suffered at the hands of an increasingly repressive regime. At first, many politicians, trade union leaders and intellectuals were dismissed. Finally, political violence gave way to the Ato Institucional N° 5 (Institutional Act Number 5)1 (1968), military government (1969), and the exile, detention and murder of political opponents. In 1964, the political alliance between the United States and Brazil encouraged the creation of a Programa Nacional de Pesquisas Arqueológicas (National Program of Archaeological Research) with headquarters in Washington. In 1969, the promotion of pro-government researchers proved to be connected with the dismissal of critical thinkers such as Paulo Duarte and the intention to destroy the Instituto de Pré-História da Universidade de São Paulo (Institute of Prehistory of the University of Sao Paulo – Duarte 1994).

Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, 2009

This memoir gives a history of my archaeological research in Brazil and especially the theoretical issues, empirical interests, collaborations, and events that motivated it. I begin with my early course and field experiences as a student, my work as a museum curator and university professor, my research in literature, archives, and collections, and my early collaborations and interactions with other students and with scholars. Then I trace the relationship of my Venezuelan Orinoco dissertation work to my interest in the Amazon, and explain how that led subsequently to my field research in Brazil. I then summarize the work at the four regional foci of the project in the Lower Amazon of Brazil and point to what might be the theoretical implications of the results in light of the results of work by other scholars. I conclude with an explanation of how the Brazilian research relates to my preliminary research in Central Africa and conclude with the implications of the South American and...

Anuario de Arqueología, 2020

As primeiras pesquisas arqueológicas realizadas na área do Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara, sudeste do Piauí-Brasil, iniciaram-se na década de 70, conduzidas pela arqueóloga Niède Guidon, com o objetivo de contextualizar os sítios com grafismos rupestres, resultando em um ordenamento prévio hipotético para um reconhecimento das identidades culturais e cronologias. A definição classificatória de Tradição parte das semelhanças tipológicas que são encontradas entre os grafismos. Nas pesquisas, os grafismos rupestres são considerados como um meio de comunicação que seguem um código pré-estabelecido. O comportamento agressivo e violento pode ser identificado no registro arqueológico em aldeias destruídas, tais como esqueletos humanos com marcas de fraturas e na gestualidade representada nos grafismos rupestres. Nosso artigo se refere a uma pesquisa em andamento e tem por objetivo a identificação de padrões gráficos presentes nas cenas de guerra e, como objetivo específico, a identifica...

Habitus (Thematic Issue: Archaeology of Violence and Warfare), 2021

The Tupinambá were sedentary agriculturalists inhabiting the Eastern Coast of Brazil. Sixteenth-century European explorer accounts offer rich details of Tupinambá life and warfare practices, suggesting the presence of a highly organized violence and warfare system embedded in their daily practices, animistic and cosmological beliefs, celebrations, cannibalism, and in their ideals of honor, prestige, and revenge. Building on ethnohistoric information, this article discusses the potential to further understanding of Tupinambá warfare practices through study of material culture signatures. Because archaeological studies on Tupinambá warfare are sparse, we attempt to correlate the ethnohistoric information with the types of objects and features archaeologists could reasonably expect to recover, should the accounts be accurate and the materials preserved. We argue that by using such analogies as a starting point, future researchers will be able to better test their hypotheses against the archaeological record in efforts to augment knowledge about Tupinambá lifeways. Keywords: Tupinambá, Violence, Warfare practices, Ethnohistory, Archaeology.

International Bibliography of Military History, 2011

Texto produzido em 2011, trata-se de um breve balanço sobre os reflexos das produções historiográficas brasileira e internacional nos estudos concernentes à história militar.

Encyclopedia of Historical Archaeology, 2014

Archaeology and Society, ICAHM Report, 1989

The text discusses archaeological heritage preservation in Brazil, focusing in Amazonian Archaeology, in the last decade of 20th century.

Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2016

This article reflects on the different ways in which the organizing principles and materiality of a company town-a product of control society, vigilance, and the imposition of modern notions of "civilization"-diametrically oppose Amazonian ways of occupying space and arranging landscape, using the invasion of the company town Núcleo Urbano de Carajás by members of the ethnic group Xikrin do Cateté as the starting point for discussion. I use archaeological terms to formulate a discussion about these overlapping and conflicting visions of the same territory, with the aim of constructing an alternative narrative of the Amazonian conflicts that grow alongside the expansion of great infrastructural building projects. The aim of this paper is to show the enormous toll that producing commodities to meet globalized consumerist demands has on local populations.