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bahareads's review
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
John Monteiro writes about the Indigenous in Brazil, specifically in the Sao Paulo area, and the Portuguese settlement in that area as well. The text is based on John Monteiro’s doctoral dissertation. Described by scholars as a field-defining work, and in Brazil it's considered a classic among historians in Brazil (222). Blacks of the Land or Negros da terra as published in its original language was translated by James Woodard and Barbara Weinstein. These two scholars agree Blacks of the Land is a transitional work that “bridge between the traditions in social and economic history” (xvii). Showing the social history of Luso-indigenous relations and “the development of the economy and society of colonial Sao Paulo” Blacks of the Land opens a new vein in the historiography of Brazilian history according to the author himself.
Reading Blacks of the Land was interesting. Monteiro writes on the topic of Indigenous slavery because according to him the impact of indigenous slavery is overlooked by African slavery, which he briefly mentions in a few of his chapters. Since this is a translated work, I wonder if it is as dense in Portuguese as it is in English. The chapters were a decent length for processing the information but there was so much information packed into each chapter. It was a lot to process as a reader, yet the writing was smooth. The layout of the book was chronological which helped build the timeline of the destruction of indigenous in my mind. Chapter one does give background information for what Monteiro writes about in the rest of Blacks of the Land but I felt that the text overall is presupposing that the readers are informed of Brazilian history and Portuguese relations.
Chapter one shows how the Portuguese used the naïve native narrative to strip away everything from the natives in the Sao Paulo region. The language they used when writing about the natives, words such as savage, lazy, barbarous, and dumb create a narrative of people who must be governed and subjected to European rule. Natives who need the wiser European to show them right from wrong and help guide them with a firm hand. Monteiro says the Portuguese destroyed indigenous societies because they were unable to be integrated into the colonial sphere.
The tension between Paulistas and Missions was surprising to me. Attacking places that are supposed to be related to your faith for easy access to slaves shows how economically motivated everyone was in the new world. When Monteiro mentions Missions are they only Jesuit ones? Is the tension between the Jesuits and Paulistas indicative of deeper political ongoings in Portugal and throughout the Catholic Christendom? It does seem like the Missions were wealthy as they rented their surplus of slaves out to Paulistas who needed porters. Paulistas being both buyers and consumers of the labour in the created colonial system is an example of showing how the indigenous did not have any room for Indigenous rights or freedoms, let alone social norms.
Contemporary observations show “in every corner of Brazil, slavery became the measure of society” (123). The most interesting source John Monteiro uses is the role of Donativo Real and how the Donativo has helped create a document not used in the study of Sao Paulo society until now (183). I wonder why it had not peaked the interests of historians until now? The shift from agriculture to mining and the decline of the prominent Paulista farmer shows the destruction of the indigenous communities were all for nought. The ending of the text shows an “impoverished peasantry” and the destruction of the land and indigenous people who lived there. The afterword saddened me, in learning of John Monteiro’s untimely passing. The text shows there is still more to glen and grow in the area of Brazilian historiography as it comes indigenous in the Sao Paulo area.
Reading Blacks of the Land was interesting. Monteiro writes on the topic of Indigenous slavery because according to him the impact of indigenous slavery is overlooked by African slavery, which he briefly mentions in a few of his chapters. Since this is a translated work, I wonder if it is as dense in Portuguese as it is in English. The chapters were a decent length for processing the information but there was so much information packed into each chapter. It was a lot to process as a reader, yet the writing was smooth. The layout of the book was chronological which helped build the timeline of the destruction of indigenous in my mind. Chapter one does give background information for what Monteiro writes about in the rest of Blacks of the Land but I felt that the text overall is presupposing that the readers are informed of Brazilian history and Portuguese relations.
Chapter one shows how the Portuguese used the naïve native narrative to strip away everything from the natives in the Sao Paulo region. The language they used when writing about the natives, words such as savage, lazy, barbarous, and dumb create a narrative of people who must be governed and subjected to European rule. Natives who need the wiser European to show them right from wrong and help guide them with a firm hand. Monteiro says the Portuguese destroyed indigenous societies because they were unable to be integrated into the colonial sphere.
The tension between Paulistas and Missions was surprising to me. Attacking places that are supposed to be related to your faith for easy access to slaves shows how economically motivated everyone was in the new world. When Monteiro mentions Missions are they only Jesuit ones? Is the tension between the Jesuits and Paulistas indicative of deeper political ongoings in Portugal and throughout the Catholic Christendom? It does seem like the Missions were wealthy as they rented their surplus of slaves out to Paulistas who needed porters. Paulistas being both buyers and consumers of the labour in the created colonial system is an example of showing how the indigenous did not have any room for Indigenous rights or freedoms, let alone social norms.
Contemporary observations show “in every corner of Brazil, slavery became the measure of society” (123). The most interesting source John Monteiro uses is the role of Donativo Real and how the Donativo has helped create a document not used in the study of Sao Paulo society until now (183). I wonder why it had not peaked the interests of historians until now? The shift from agriculture to mining and the decline of the prominent Paulista farmer shows the destruction of the indigenous communities were all for nought. The ending of the text shows an “impoverished peasantry” and the destruction of the land and indigenous people who lived there. The afterword saddened me, in learning of John Monteiro’s untimely passing. The text shows there is still more to glen and grow in the area of Brazilian historiography as it comes indigenous in the Sao Paulo area.
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