Relatos, memórias e narrativas na construção do imaginário do povo Kaingang: as estampas de Joaquim José de Miranda na conquista dos Campos de Guarapuava

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this research we analyze the representation of the native tribe Kaingang presented in a series of 39 illustrations produced by Joaquin José de Miranda about the tenth expedition destined to brave the so called sertões of the area of Tibagi in the Paraná State. This expedition was commanded by Alfonso Botelho in the year of 1771. The native tribe of the Kaingang is the third in number os population in Brazil, with 37,470 individuals. (IBGE, 2010). The integrants of this group live in the three States of the South and also in the west part of the Sate of São Paulo. They speak the Kaingang language which is connected to the linguistic Jê family, from the principal root of Macro-jê. In 1771, Botelho established contact with the Kaingang from the fields of Guarapuava and two weeks later the natives ge to organize an ambush in which they killed seven from Botelhos‟s soldiers. So he had no choice but leaving the area. In this sense, we reflect about the ways of the natives‟ resistance in front of the invasion of their territory and in the same way we reflect also about the idea of the demographic emptiness by which the idea of the existence of groups of natives in the territory of the nowadays State of Paraná is just denied and there is just the reproduction of de discourse that this land was uninhabited until the Portuguese-Brazilian or immigrants from others countries could come and cultivate them. Concerning this thematic, the theoretical studies done by Mota (1994) and Ribeiro (2002) are fundamental. Once we face Miranda‟s illustrations a dialogue with the works by Belluzzo and Piccoli (2003), Amoroso (2003) and Sevcenko (2003) is established, as well as Alfonso Botelho‟s very own report about the happenings of the expedition (SAMPAIO E SOUZA, 1956) which is crucial to the understanding of Miranda‟s drawings. Among the fundamental studies about the Kaingang‟s culture, history and language we highlight those done by Ambrosetti (1895), Baldus, (1937), Borba (1908), D‟Angelis (2002), Lima (1842), Mota (2009) and Veiga (2006). By the analisis os the illustrations we can say that Miranda‟s imagetic narrativeis a material of great value to the history of the Kaingang people once through it it is possible to reflect about the chocks between the colonizers and the Kaingang people in the fields of Gaurapuava. These illustrations also show up the inconsistence of the thesis of a geographical emptiness as well as they reveal the resistance movement of the Kaingang against the invasion of their territory.