Land, Politics, and Society in Colonial Brazil: A Native Perspective

Carmen Alveal

This paper deals with a conflict over land in the Mangaratiba Region, in the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro during the eighteenth century. The major agents of the conflict were the Indians themselves, indicating that the struggle for land was not only between whites and Indians, or among whites. The Indians’ lawsuit over possession of land reveals an internal struggle for power in the old Mangaratiba Indian Settlement. For the purpose of the research, the sources used were the judicial litigations judged at the Appelation Court of the Tribunal da Relação, kept at the National Archive.

[WP# 04014]