THE “SPIRITUAL CONQUEST” OF THE TUPINAMBÁ: the theoretical-conceptual originality of acculturation and the regime of asymmetric relation of Thales de Azevedo

Abstract

Thales de Azevedo is not known for his work on indigenous peoples. However, Pedro Agostinho already called our attention to this hardly remembered aspect of his work. In actuality, a focus on indigenous peoples entered very early on in his career, especially with his well-known historical study on the city of Salvador. When one examines what he wrote on 1958 his creative use of the contemporary literature on acculturation stands out. The author uses acculturation for the initial phase of the conquest. The subsequent phase of domination and the forced confinement in indigenous villages merits a special theoretic expression, the regime of asymmetric relation. His theoretical-conceptual discussion was very contemporary and innovative, and clearly prefigures certain positions like those by Cardoso de Oliveira. Notwithstanding later republications of the article, it seems to have met with little response or recognition in the ethnological literature and in the theory of interethnic friction, the major theoretical movement on the subject of later years.

Thales de Azevedo; Indigenous peoples; Acculturation; Regime of Asymmetric Relation; Interethnic Friction