During the second half of the 18th century, colonial administrators, men of science and
religious missionaries took part in the Boundary Demarcation Commission, which was
established by the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1750. In addition, these demarcating
agents drew up descriptions of the elements of nature, enabling the development of scientific
knowledge about colonial Amazon. In this context, the German priest Anselm Eckart
(1721-1809) not only took part in the religious work in the missionary villages in the state of
Grão-Pará and Maranhão between 1753 and 1757, but also recorded his impressions of the
fauna, flora, climate, hydrography and landscape of the Amazon region in his travel reports.
Therefore, this research analyzes, from the perspective of Environmental History, the
representations of Amazon plants, specifically cotton, cocoa, cloves, manioc and tobacco, in
the “Aditamentos à descrição das terras do Brasil” (1785), by Father Eckart. As a result, we
can see that these Amazon plants had, in addition to the economic dimension attributed to
them throughout the colonization process, other dimensions that were important in different
aspects of Amazon and transatlantic life, which demonstrates the historical protagonism of the
flora of the Amazon Valley.
|
