(Des)caminhos das Jornadas Meridionais: representações indígenas e estratégias de mediação cultural no contexto indigenista em meados do século XIX

Abstract

Thinking about the ways of interpretation and representation of indian nations, this research intends to investigate some travel itineraries published in Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute Magazine, known as Southern Journeys. This collection of experiences and perceptions bequeathed data about the native group's localization, daily dynamics and descriptions referring to the physiognomy and personality. Therefore, it's remarkable in these narratives, the fact that they reveal the strategies used by their interlocutors to create social bonds and, so to speak, succeed in their personal attempts linked to the indigenous society. Thereby, John Henry Elliot, Joaquim Francisco Lopes e José Joaquim Machado de Oliveira, stem from their relationship with the Baron of Antonina, enter the southern backwoods in order to map, describe and catalog data regarding terrestrial and fluvial routes that connected Curitiba to the Lower Paraguay and, in the process, observe the shapes, the colors, the peoples that color those landscapes in their paths. Dialoguing indigenous interests and strategies, the representations outlined by these agents reveal that the approach with the native groups was a result of practices related to persuasion and mildness, witch, used traditional elements to mediate the boundary situations and intercultural contact. Stem from these suppositions, the instruments of cultural mediation enable not only the gathering and exchanges between different universes, as well as a resignification of the role given to the indigenous nations that, as a result of the social and political context in the 1800's was thought in multiple ways, oscillating its figurations in the national scenario. Hence, in this kaleidoscope, the main objective is to analyze the references made about the indian nations and, more than that, demonstrate the mechanisms of cultural mediation adopted to develop and support alliances. Moreover, through these descriptions, it's possible to reveal the southern backwoods as a space of potential dialogues and not only permeating tensions, dangers and conflicts, as it was commonly reported.