Nautical landscapes in the sixteenth century: An archaeological approach to the coast of Sao Paulo (Brazil)

Abstract

Understanding the first century of European and African presence in American lands demands an analysis of three terms that designate specific stages of the occupation and settlement process: discovery, conquest and colonization. Unfortunately, they are usually either taken as synonyms or as anachronisms, blurring the perception of the differences in History. Each one of these stages implicated the adoption of different interaction strategies between the seamen, the ships and boats, the environment and the native people. This fact has determined the construction of distinct maritime landscapes whose material remains are today spread and superposed in a space that is still inhabited and, therefore, in permanent mutation. The aim of this chapter is to propose interpretations, based on the archeological remains, on what these maritime landscapes might look like and how these landscapes could help to develop a more encompassing History of the forms of power that came to be from the contact between different societies, in the sixteenth century, in the Central South coast of Brazil.