Os autos de devassa e guerras justas contra os índios e o ordenamento jurídico do Brasil colônia - o caso dos índios Mura do rio Madeira (AM): extermínio e memória

Abstract

We conducted an ethno-historical study of the extermination of indigenous populations in colonial Amazonia for state reasons, through the process of Autos da Devassa and Just Wars, especially in the case of the Mura Indians (AM). We aim to verify the legal procedures that were the basis for the various steps of the referred process in the context of the Portuguese patronage, as well as the reflection of these facts in the historical memory of the Mura nation. We adopted as a documental base of analysis the copies (facsimiles and paleographic transcriptions) of the Autos da Devassa against the Mura (1738-39) brought from Portugal; we also carried out bibliographic research and field observations. The process of the Autos da Devassa against the Mura carried out in Belém do Pará presents, besides the bureaucratic procedures of the time, a sequence of witness statements and opinions of religious superiors (Junta das Missões), culminating with the decision of the king of Portugal, Dom João V. The reciprocal interference between Church and State, in what concerns temporal and spiritual powers, as well as conflicting relations between such powers, is very clear. Regarding the repercussions in the historical memory of the Mura nation in relation to the exterminations of the past, an awareness of such facts and a mobilization in the search for the reconstruction of the indigenous identity is perceived through the Mura Indigenous Council, installed as of 1990 in Autazes (AM). The present work provides a contribution to the interface between indigenous ethnology/ethno-history/legal anthropology, opening possibilities for new developments in this field of interests; also meeting the demands presented by the Indians in the search for their identity, as in the Mura case.