Elements of the culture and the work of the original peoples in Óbidos-PA, 1698 to 1763: a study based on the literary records of the colonial Amazon

Abstract

From literary sources, the primary objective of this article is to analyze cultural elements and the work of indigenous peoples between 1698-1763, in the space where the current city of Óbidos-Pará is located. The documentary basis is the literature of the period, with emphasis on the diary of Bishop Queirós, 1762/63. The documentation gathered on the "Forte Pauxis", later the village of Óbidos – chronicles, letters, diaries, state documents – allowed a critical methodological confrontation, a bibliographical analysis of the descriptive elements of fragments of the past, their evidence and connections of multiple elements intertwined in the narratives. The interpretation of culture and the ethnography of daily life provided greater understanding of narrative discourses, as well as the observation of the "forgetfulness" of past historical facts enabled the presentation of peculiar results about work, technologies, floristic and faunistic uses for medicine and food of the original peoples in that period. In addition to references to the characteristics of rivers, the potability of waters for human consumption, the documents present new socioenvironmental knowledge, reveal unprecedented information from historical subjects, such as women and blacks, in addition to the production/consumption of açaí in the 18th century Óbidos, essential to employment in teaching/learning of the discipline História de Óbidos, curricular component of Elementary School in the municipality.