The (In)felicity of Being Índio: Making Indigeneity Intelligible in the Portuguese Amazon in the Eighteenth Century

What is it about?

This article examines the legal construction of the term Índio in eighteenth-century Portuguese Amazon, arguing that indigeneity did not operate as a fixed ethnic identity but rather as a performative legal category strategically mobilised by Indigenous and mestizo individuals. While the status of Índio ostensibly implied natural freedom in contrast to the legal condition of enslavement, it was frequently shaped by regimes of tutelage, coercion, and socio-identitarian hierarchies. Rooted in Jesuit thought and natural law, the category was reconfigured by the Pombaline reforms, which aimed to “civilise” Indigenous peoples without dismantling the structures of colonial domination. Although the 1755 legislation formally affirmed their freedom, Índios remained susceptible to reclassification and forced labour. This legal ambiguity enabled litigants to assert their freedom through petitions, kinship claims, and royal appeals. Drawing on cases from the Junta das Missões, the article explores how legal norms, stigma, and paternalism simultaneously constrained and enabled Indigenous agency. It offers a reconceptualisation of how slavery and freedom were negotiated contested in colonial Amazon.

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