Sobre o uso da Língua do Príncipe: história social da cultura escrita, reconfigurações linguísticas e populações indígenas na Bahia setecentista

Abstract

In the context of the reforms promoted by the Portuguese Crown in the second half of the eighteenth century, the Directory, to be observed in the Indians Settlements from Pará and Maranhão, while His Majesty does not order the opposite - known simply as the Pombaline Directory or Directory of the Indians - it established a policy of language management in America which determined the prohibition of the use of indigenous languages and in particular of the so-called general language as one of the principal instruments for the "civilization" of Amerindians. Although the Directory was formed in 1757, for the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, from 1758, it was addressed to the other Portuguese colony in America, the State of Brazil, until finally its arrangements were revoked by means of the Royal Charter of May 12, 1798. In the application of the Directory to the State of Brazil, the 17th May, 1759 statement issued by the special court of the Overseas Council, which installed itself in the Captaincy of Bahia, played a central role, inasmuch as it directed the functions of Director of Indians, position created by the Directory, for the clerks of the Chambers of the Indian settlements raised to villages. Without leaving aside the policy of tutelage foreseen in the reform, this change made the clerks-directors indigenous literacy agents, responsible for teaching Christian doctrine, reading, writing and telling the children. Thus, the present thesis discusses the process of schooling of the indigenous boys and girls in Bahia from the second half of the eighteenth century, advancing until the first decade of the nineteenth century, as well as the other Indians inclined to this matter, taking as a locus of research nine villages of Indians created by the special court of the Overseas Council in 1758, Abrantes, Soure, Mirandela, Pombal, Santarém, Olivença, Barcelos, Trancoso and Verde, in execution of the royal charter of May 8, 1758, and six villages created in the District and Ombudsman's Office of Porto Seguro, between 1764 and 1772, specifically São Mateus, Belmonte, Prado, Viçosa, Alcobaça and Porto Alegre. Through the documentary sources of the Public Archive of the State of Bahia (APEB), we surveyed the commissioned clerks-directors between 1760 and 1834 who were supposedly responsible for teaching Portuguese as a second language and indigenous literacy agents in the abovementioned villages. From the analysis of the documentation, including sources from the Overseas Historical Archives (AHU) and the National Library of Rio de Janeiro (BNJR), we observed that there were different forms of welcoming the indigenist policy of D. José I's government in Indian villages erected in the 1700s Bahia. Although it was not possible to measure the actual performance of the director-clerks, conflicts between them and villagers testify to the non-fulfillment of the obligations to teach reading and writing to the children, as well as testimony about the civilization of the Indians and reports of Ombudsmen reveal the strategies used by some villains so that their children did not enter the lists or even when enrolled did not attend classes. The data discussed in this thesis pave the way of interpretation on the construction of Indian villages and their linguistic implications, from the mapping of compliance with the guidelines of the Directory regarding the opening of public schools and, if so, their scope, as well as to what extent they were generalized, the role they played in the elimination of languages and cultures, and the goal achievement of teaching reading and writing.