Análise Discursiva do Termo “Índio” no Relato de Viagem de Frei Gaspar de Carvajal

Abstract

This article addresses the meanings of the term "Indian" in the travelogue of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal (2021), entitled "Relation of the Most Famous and Very Powerful River Called Maranon." The general objective is to analyze the meanings of the term "Indian" in the aforementioned account, and the specific objective is to identify the meanings of the term "Indian" present in the text. To this end, the theory of French Discourse Analysis (DA), which relates language, history, and ideology, is used. Regarding methodology, a bibliographic research was conducted, adopting a qualitative approach and analytical procedures specific to DA, such as: reading, description, and interpretation of the account, making excerpts from the text where reference is made to the original peoples through the term "Indian." Carvajal's account presents multiple meanings attributed to the term "Indian," reflecting a complex ideological construction. A variety of meanings attributed to the term "Indian" were identified, all constructed from Christian and colonial ideological formations. Indigenous people are represented, at different points in the narrative, as pagans in need of conversion, meek, domestic and naive beings, submissive, controllable and inferior people, and at the same time, as dangerous and threatening barbarians.