Indigenous ruralities in the colonial Amazon

Abstract

This article addresses the question of land and the Indians in the Amazon region, during the colonial period spanning the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. The objective is to discuss the processes of expropriation derived from the European conquest, considered in terms of time and space, and also to reflect on how, beyond the perspective of expropriation, one must understand how the colonial Indians sought to carve out spaces of autonomy through agriculture. Here we show that while colonization eliminated indigenous agricultural spaces and practices, the Indians developed new practices and legitimized new spaces of agricultural production within the colonial world.