AMAZONISM IN ACRE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: REVISITING ACREAN HISTOR

Abstract

This article deals with the place attributed to indigenous peoples in the official history of the state of Acre. Starting with the notion of Amazonism, I discuss Western imaginary about the Amazon and its first inhabitants with an emphasis on its deep ambiguity. I show how this imaginary served as a guide to the conquest of Acre during the rubber boom and how the region’s indigenous peoples were initially marginalized and excluded from its history in order to boost the colonizers’ heroism. It was only in the 1970s that the Indians acquired some visibility after they organized themselves as political actors in a new colonization context of the region. Lastly, I analyze a contemporary situation which, although more favorable to the Indians, reinvents an idyllic history and continues to reproduce Western stereotypes about these peoples.Keywords: Amazon, Acre, indigenous people