A persistência do aviamento: colonialismo e história indígena no noroeste amazônico

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the “long term” of the aviamento system in the Northwest Amazon, a territory traditionally occupied by the Tukano, Aruak, and Maku people. In this region, the colonization begun in the XVII century and, since your genesis to the present, had a major influence in the relations between the settlers and indigenous through the barter system trough credit, called it in the XX century as “aviamento”. In this system, external “buyers” give merchandises in advance to the indigenous “sellers” which, in turn, pay with goods. This create a relationship between them based on debt; producing a hierarchical network of domination amid the “patrons” and the “clients”. The indigenous, despite the fact they had been affected by war and slavery, manage to act in the fringes of this long term violent regime and, in consequence, succeed to conserve and renovate their regional social system. The analyses of this dissertation are an interdisciplinary approach to the colonial process; establish a discussion among history and memory. By dealing with the subject of the formation and persistence of the aviamento system, we aim to demonstrate how it still is one of the structural factors to consider in the myriad of factors that identify and explain the Northwest Amazon.