Indigenous Knowledge in the Making of Science: Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648)

Project Information

BRASILIAE

Grant agreement ID: 715423

DOI

10.3030/715423

Project closed

EC signature date 4 April 2017

Start date 1 January 2018

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 475 565,00

EU contribution

€ 1 475 565,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - BRASILIAE (Indigenous Knowledge in the Making of Science: Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648))

Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BRASILIAE project focused on the place and role of Indigenous knowledge in the creation of science during the early modern period, specifically by researching how the book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (Piso and Marcgraf, 1648) and its associated materials (such as drawings, sketches, scientific notes etc) were produced and used. In an encyclopaedic format, this book brings together textual and visual information about the natural world, linguistics, and geography of Brazil as understood and experienced by coastal Tupi indigenous populations, Dutch and Portuguese colonizers, and freed and enslaved Africans and Afro-Brazilians. The botanical and zoological sections of the HNB in particular present hundreds of encyclopedic entries that name, describe, and classify plants and animals based on (among others) Indigenous Tupi knowledge, and explain their function and uses by Luso-Brazilians, Indigenous, and/or African societies. This knowledge was subsequently re-interpreted by the authors and editor of the book, and presented in textual and visual format to a European early modern (scholarly) audience.

The BRASILIAE project therefore aimed at identifying these pieces of Indigenous, local, and Afro-Brazilian knowledges in their different forms: names and uses of plants and animals, scientific and artistic images, and knowledge-practices. By studying these, our goal was to understand how Indigenous peoples were part of the work done by scientists in that time period and context, and what kind of interactions were taking place between diverse segments of society in Dutch Brazil. Objects are also part of knowledge and science so, next to the book itself, our project also studied historic Indigenous objects in museums that can be connected to the time and context of the HNB. Finally, an important last objective of the project was to reconnect this past Indigenous knowledge to present-day descendant communities in Brazil.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the course of the BRASILIAE project, we carried out research in libraries, museums, archives, and botanical gardens. We studied herbarium vouchers, texts and images of plants, texts about animals, museum objects and databases, the surviving copies of the book HNB, and historical documentation from the Dutch Archives, among others. Part of that research was done online, with the use of digitized materials. Our results are:
1) We identified and updated the scientific names of all useful plants in the book HNB and highlighted Indigenous and African plant knowledge retentions since the creation of the book. The list of updated name plants is publicly available and can be re-used by researchers and interested parties.
2) We published a census of all of the surviving copies of the book HNB in public libraries worldwide and we requested, paid for, or facilitated the digitization of the 15 colored copies thereof , so that other researchers and stakeholders can access it free of charge.
3) Generated new information about the provenance of a selection of historic Indigenous Brazilian objects in European museums (Museo delle Civilta in Rome, Italy; National Museum of World Cultures in The Netherlands; Museum der Kulturen Basel in Switzerland) and shared this information with the relevant museums.
4) Retrieved a wealth of information about the practice of slavery in Dutch Brazil (1630-1654) from the documents of the Dutch National Archives. A PhD dissertation is being prepared which explains the mechanisms of the slave trade, slave-holding, and enslaved and free Africans’ ways of life in that historical period in a transatlantic perspective.
5) Located, identified, and inventorized all the collections of the Amazonian Gurupi region biocultural collections in museums worldwide, and provided the leaders of the Indigenous Peoples of the region with copies of the inventory for their use in cultural revitalization initiatives.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The BRASILIAE project has been able to create new knowledge about the book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae and about the cultural and social history of Dutch Brazil. Next to the results mentioned above, we had two results that went beyond expected standards or beyond the current state of knowledge.
First, we discovered for the first time that this book contains knowledge about plants that are native to all of the Brazilian biomes and not only the northeast (caatinga), as previously thought. This means that this book can be used as a good example of the types of plants that were used by people everywhere in Brazil in the seventeenth century. It also indicates which plants were moved through the hands of Indigenous and local peoples migrating through the South American continent, and those of African peoples forcibly relocated from their homelands to Brazil.
Second, we have shown for the first time how Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen was deeply involved in the slave-trade and slave smuggling while he was governor of Dutch Brazil. While this had been suggested in some scholarly publications, we were able to prove it with historical evidence and thereby added to the current public debate about (de)colonization and colonial responsibility of the former empire of the Netherlands. On the same topic, we have discovered how the myth of Johan Maurits and the Dutch occupation of Brazil being ‘tolerant’ or less violent than the Portuguese one was heavily influenced by a series of museum exhibitions in the twentieth century that propagated such ideas.

Team member C. Monteiro analysing a copy of the HNB at the National Library in Brazil.

Team member M. Alcantara-Rodriguez studying the Marcgraf herbarium in Denmark

Team members L. Matthews Cascon and F. Vander Velden studying an axe at the Weltmuseum Vienna.

PI Mariana Francozo studying a historic indigenous object at the Pigorini Museum.

Team member L. Matthews Cascon studying wooden clubs at the National Museum of Ethnology (NL) depot.

Frontspiece of the book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (Piso and Marcgraf 1648)