Afro-indigenous quilombola architectures in the Pará Amazon

This article analyzes the architecture produced in quilombos in Pará during the 19th century. The main objective is to demonstrate how the material culture of the quilombos in the Amazonian region of Pará incorporates construction techniques and knowledge of Indigenous origin and influence. Through qualitative documentary analysis of accounts of invasions and conflicts involving quilombos, as well as reports by foreign travelers in the 19th century, the study was shown that quilombola architecture present styles, construction systems, and languages that are the result of the intricate relationships between Black and Indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon. The analysis shows that, quilombola communities exchanged specialized building knowledge with certain Indigenous groups that at times cohabited peacefully in their territories or even established more intimate relationships, such as marriage. It also demonstrates that the Indigenous presence, as a significant component of the cultural formation of quilombos in Pará, is reaffirmed in the discourses of contemporary communities, which preserve numerous construction techniques and languages from their ancestors.

Keywords
Architecture; Quilombos ; Indigenous; Black; Amazonia paraense