Sistemas regionais, relações interétnicas e movimentos territoriais – os Tapajó e além na história ameríndia

Bis article considers the making of a complex Amerindian territory in the Lower Amazon in the late seventeenth century. Bis territory, the Madeira/Tapajós region, can be seen as a tribal zone, outside of direct contact with colonial society, but nevertheless connected to it. A war between the Tapajó (south shore, around mouth of the Tapajós River) and Aruaquis (north shore around Lake Saraca) polity that had been on going for most of the seventeenth century came to a head in the early 1660s. With European involvement the war ended with the consequence that the collective potential of both polities were much reduced. By considering the relations of alliance and combat this article confronts the internal and external transformations in the Lower Amazon, focusing on the Tapajó nation. Did this once great people break up into di0erent ethnicities, which then regrouped in the tribal zone, or did it become smaller and less powerful?.