Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: HALISSON SEABRA CARDOSO

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : HALISSON SEABRA CARDOSO
DATE: 19/03/2026
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Virtual - Meet
TITLE:

War Correspondence: The Tupi Letters and the Political Mobilization of Indigenous Interests in the Context of the Luso-Dutch Conflict in the Captaincy General of Pernambuco (c. 1624–1656)

KEY WORDS:

Tupi letters; Indigenous history; Portuguese-Dutch conflict; Potiguara people.

PAGES: 118
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUMMARY:

This research investigates the political mobilization of indigenous interests in the context of the Portuguese-Dutch conflict in the captaincy general of Pernambuco (c. 1624-1656), focusing on documentation produced by indigenous people during this period, such as the Tupi Letters (1645). By prioritizing documents produced by indigenous people, some in Tupi, the thesis analyzes writing as a situated political practice, through which its authors formulated arguments, defined interlocutors, and sought to actively intervene in the unfolding of the war. The problem guiding this work is to understand how Potiguara leaders, embedded in a conflictive scenario and internal fragmentation of the group, elaborated and expressed their own political interests, mobilizing indigenous repertoires and colonial legal-political categories in the construction of alliances with the Portuguese and Dutch. The hypothesis is that such actions should not be interpreted as a passive derivation of metropolitan policies or missionary action, but as constitutive elements of the course of the conflict and the very territorial configuration of Portuguese America. Thus, the analysis of indigenous alliances shifts from the dichotomy of adherence/resistance to an examination of the strategies of mediation, negotiation, and persuasion engendered amidst the consolidation of the colonial system. The documentary corpus articulates, in addition to indigenous sources, documentation from the Portuguese bureaucracy, indigenist legislation, chronicles, and Dutch administrative records, allowing for cross-reading between different discursive regimes and paying close attention to the Atlantic connections that frame the conflict and local dynamics. More than reconstructing military episodes, the thesis investigates the mobilization of categories such as loyalty, service, justice, favor, land, and collectivity in the production of indigenous political discourses. Organized into three parts, the research initially examines the Potiguara leadership aligned with the Portuguese Crown and the historical antecedents of this alliance; then, it analyzes the groups that allied themselves with the Dutch and the political rearrangements resulting from this choice; Finally, it identifies discursive convergences between opposing positions, highlighting Indigenous writing as a space for political formulation. In doing so, it argues that Indigenous participation was a structuring, not peripheral, element in defining the spatial and territorial directions of colonization.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1879280 - LIGIO JOSE DE OLIVEIRA MAIA
Interno - 2432663 - HELDER ALEXANDRE MEDEIROS DE MACEDO
Interno - ***.412.534-** - THIAGO ALVES DIAS - UPE
Externo à Instituição - BRUNO ROMERO FERREIRA MIRANDA - UFRPE