"Às margens" da Colônia: problemas e vulnerabilidades indígenas no Maranhão Colonial (1614-1750)

Abstract

This research addresses the problems and vulnerabilities surrounding indigenous people in Maranhão Colonial that caused changes in their daily lives at the time. It aims to analyze the social conditions of natives throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, seeking to characterize the challenges they faced. To achieve this objective, a methodological approach of bibliographic analysis was adopted on the main problems surrounding these individuals and the historical context and, also, a documentary analysis around the Catalog of Loose Manuscript Documents referring to the Captaincy of Maranhão existing in the Historical Archive Overseas. The main results, which arise from observations made during the Scientific Initiation, show that the intensification of relations with Europeans and the new measures adopted in the State resulted in processes that disrupted the natives' way of life. In conclusion, the new dynamics related to administration, slavery, wars and religious indoctrination were fundamental factors that created the problems and vulnerabilities surrounding the indigenous people of Colonial Maranhão.