This thesis analyzes the roles that the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Valley played
in the circulation/construction of knowledge during the second half of 18th century,
considering them as subjects who were actively involved in this process, as historical
protagonists. From the perspective of Indigenous History and the History of Science, and
through documentation, I demonstrate that their knowledge was part of the constitution
of the natural sciences under construction in that period, and how, to a considerable
extent, their knowledge was appropriated by the modern science under construction at the
time. The thesis states that the construction of knowledge, as well as its circulation, relied
essentially on local sources and practices, and, as I try to show and analyze, on indigenous
practices, techniques and knowledge. I present and analyze sources that make it possible
to insert the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Valley into the history of Western
scientific knowledge.
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