Catherine of austria (1507-78), the arara, and the colonisation of Brazilian natural resources

This chapter analyses how premodern queens controlled human and nonhuman worlds through natural resource management and how their power in this domain was represented. Both queenship and natural resource management were configured by contemporary gender ideologies that shaped the identities and actions of those with authority to wield power. This chapter considers how premoderns understood natural resources and how we can historically analyse past human activities in a more-than-human world. It investigates how the identities and reputations of queens were made through their management of natural resources, as well as the relationship between ecosystem changes and queenly actions. It further analyses a series of transformations, to ecosystems, to dynastic, religious, and other political affiliations, and to knowledge-making systems during this period of increasing global exchange and connectivity. This chapter documents tensions between rhetoric and reality of queens’ practices and how historiographical traditions have also played a part in shaping scholarly and popular ideas about queenly natural resource management.