Mundurukania: documentary and material sources for the study of spatial understanding in Munduruku culture (18th and 19th centuries)

Abstract

This Scientific Initiation study aims to a survey and mapping of written and iconographic sources about the spatial understanding of the Munduruku culture within eighteenth and nineteenth century. The research will be based on bibliography from Brazilian colonial period, specially referenced reports of exploratory travels in the colonial dictionary of Antônio Porro (2007). Afterwards, establishing intended connection between the historical records and the academic literature from the modern archaeology and anthropology fields of study, particularly the works of Robert Murphy (1954-1960), Alfred Métraux (1927-1928), Bruna Rocha (2017), Cristiana Barreto (2001) and Eduardo Neves (2001). This correlation will constitute an initial assembly of documentary and iconographic sources aimed at allowing a better comprehension of the spatial conception within the cultural universe of the Munduruku, an Amazonian people of singular cultural heritage in Northern Brazil. This Project collaborates to the theme of contributions of Amerindian traditions to the arts, architecture and development of techniques in the Colonial Period, inside the Projeto Jovem Pesquisador FAPESP set in FAU-USP, Barroco Cifrado: Pluralidade Cultural nas Missões Jesuíticas no Estado de São Paulo (1653-1759), to which The Amazon Rainforest constitutes one of the most important research fields.