travel narratives of the french to brazil
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Travel Narratives of the French to Brazil: Sixteenth to Eighteenth CenturiesAuthor(s): Michel De CerteauSource: Representations, No. 33, Special Issue: The New World (Winter, 1991), pp. 221-226Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928765 .
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28.
De
Certeau,
Voyage
et
prison,
53. The
musical
metaphor
s
my
own.
29.
De
Certeau,
La Faiblesse
e
croire,
92, 302,
304.
30. De
Certeau,
Ecritures,
n Michel
de
Certeau,
3-14.
31.
Francois
Hartog,
L'Ecrituredu
voyage,
n
Michel
e
Certeau,
27.
MICHEL
DE
CERTEAU
Travel Narratives
of
the French
to
Brazil:
Sixteenth
to
Eighteenth
Centuries
Subject
THIS
RESEARCH
PROJECT
is
situated at
the
intersection
f
history
and
anthropology.
t
proposes
to
analyze
a
corpus
thatcould be
considered
as
a
series
over
the
long
term.
This research
continues
work undertaken
n
history
(mentalites
nd
spirituality
n the sixteenth
nd seventeenth
enturies;
possession
in
the seventeenth
entury;religious
thought
and
practices
n the
seventeenth
century;
Leibniz;
linguistic
olicies
and theories
t the end of the
eighteenth
en-
tury)
and
in
anthropology
possession;
sorcery
nd
mysticism;
he
concept
of
popular
culture ;
nvestigations
onducted nBrazil,Chile,and Argentina ince
1966;
the
regular
teaching
of
historical
nd cultural
nthropology
tthe
Univer-
sity
f
Paris VII
since
1972;
the
foundation
of
DIAL,
a center
for
nformation
on Latin
America).
The
project
presented
here
originates
from several
questions
that
could
receive
answers
through
n
analysis
f the dossier:
1)
The
information
rovided
by
the French
on Indian ethnic
groups
living
in
Brazil
and
on Brazil
itself
uring
these
threecenturies
f relationswith
Latin
America
puts
into
question
the
relationbetween
systems
f
interpretation
con-
ceptual apparatuses, mythologies, ridsof analysis,dominant deas, and ques-
tions)
and
their
historical
contexts
(institutional,
conomic,
political,
social,
professional,
nd
religious).
n
defining
he
corpus
under
study y
geographical
bipolarity,
hope
to locate
more
easily
the modifications
hatwere ntroduced
n
the
production
of texts
by
changes
relative
o the forms
f
contact
for
example
between
the
French and
the
Tupis),
to the
nternational
ituation,
o the recruit-
mentof
voyagers,
nd so
on,
and
thusto
study
which
lements ffect
he
repro-
duction
of a scientific
nd
literary
enre
that
goes
back to the
medieval
tinerarium
(stages
in
the
knowledge
of another
world)
as well
as to the ancient
odysseys
f
pilgrims, eroes,and merchants,nd howthey ring bout thesechanges.In this
TravelNarratives
f
the
French o
Brazil
221
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way
we can
appreciate
the
mpact
of
history
n a
symbolic
tructure
f
knowledge:
the
voyage.
2)
Travel
narratives lso
constitute
nterdisciplinary
aboratories n which
categories
of
analysis,
cientific
oncepts,
and taxonomic
systems
demarcating
and
classifying
bservations n social
organization, inguistic
nd
juridical
for-
mations,
technologies,
myths
nd
legends, geography,
new
experience
of
the
body,
s well as
biological,
oological,
and medical
factors,
an come into
play
and
interact.These
areas of
exchange
and of
scientific
onfrontation
within
he sci-
ence of that
time)
are collections
et
n
the
formof
narratives
in
a
period
when
collections
f
objects
nd
curiosities,
ike thewritten
ollection
f
nformation
nd
knowledge
theorized,
notably,
y
Francis
Bacon,
came
into
being).
For this
reason
these narratives
re of interest
o a
history
f science:
in
them,
mobile
configu-
rations
of
evolving disciplines
ntersect,
row
distinct,
nd become
ordered;
in
them, s in thearchives,unitsbecome determinatewhichwillexercise their on-
straints n the
sciences destined
to
express
themwithin
ystems.
3)
As scientific
arrativity,
his
iterature
efers o
modes
in
which n account
represents
echnical
operations
observations,
ontrols, ules,
procedures)
and
theirresults.
At once a
staging
fiction,
n
the
English
sense
of the
term)
and
an
ordering
(discourse),
travel
narratives
offer
to
analysis
various combinations
between
the
practices
f scientific
nvestigation
that
rs
nveniendi,
nother
form
of the
quest
for methodus hich
haunts writersfrom
Rodolphus
Agricola
to
Leibniz and
Jean-Henri
Lambert)
and their
figurations
n
a
literary pace-time.
In orderprecisely o establish he status fthis cientific riting,willparticularly
investigate:
)
the narrative
description
f the series of
operations
that charac-
terize a
study
in
comparing
these
accounts
with other histories f
scholarly,
medical,
chemical
discoveries,
nd so
on);1
b)
the
imaginary,
he beliefs nd the
ideologies
that
a
rationality ostulates,
produces,
or
critiques;
c)
the relation
of
these
representations
f itineraries
where
the works of
the
researchers/voy-
agers
are
expressed
through
portraits
f
visited
ocieties)
o the
systems
f
fig-
uration of the
period
(thus
the
literary
ccounts,
the
cartographic
projections,
and the
engraved
scenes
or
figures
bedient
to
the rules of
perspective,
o the
hierarchical
types
of
painting, ogether
form
nterlacings
f
complementary
writings).2
ow,
under the name of travel
narratives,
were these
fictions,
t once
models and
representations
f scientific
perations,
produced?
4)
Through
a
specific
nvestigation
of
the series
France/Brazil),
t seems
to
me
possible
to
grasp
the slow
formation f
what
willreceive
n
1836 the name
of
ethnology -in
other
words,
to delineate an
archeology
of
ethnology
and
to
show how a science
of
man is
detached, modified,
nd
specified
etween the
rup-
ture of the Renaissance
and
the end
of
the
Enlightenment.
he
successive
defi-
nitionsof ethnic
difference r
of
superstition,
he
progressive
laboration
of
concepts
of fable
or of
myth,
he
distinctions
etween
writing
nd
orality
will
require special attention.3ndeed, these distinctionsnvolve trategic lementsof
222
REPRESENTATIONS
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Western
culture,
enact
classifications
hat
referback
to
the social
divisionsthat
organize
knowledge,
nd,
conversely,
re divisions
hathave structured he
social
agency
of
science.
5)
Finally,
ince
these
accounts enter into the
more
general
category
of a
scienceof the Otheror heterology, t s mportantoask,starting romBrazilian
sources
in
particular
or fromthe confrontation
fdifferent ocuments:
a)
how
the
specificity
f another
ociety,
or
xample,
that f the
Tupi,
resisted
ccidental
codifications;
b)
how the
fragments
f
a
particular
historicity
f other
societies
(with,
notably, iffering
elations
o
time,
o
space,
and so
on),
elements
capable
of
inscribing
hese societies within
duration,
a
memory,
nd
a
space
of
their
own,
were first
rought
nto
use;
c)
how,
n
the text
of the
ethnographic
project,
oriented
initially
toward
reduction
and
preservation,
re irreducible
details
(sounds,
words,
ingularities)
nsinuated
as faults
n the discourse
of
compre-
hension,
o
that he travel
narrative
resented
he
kindof
organization
hatFreud
posited
in
ordinary anguage:
a
system
n which ndices of an
unconscious,
that
Other
of the
conscience,
emerge
in
lapsus
or
witticisms.4
he
history
f
voyages
would
especially
lend
itself to this
analysis by tolerating
or
privileging
s an
event
that which
makes an
exception
to
interpretative
odes.
In so
doing,
it
would
constitute
nly
one
variety
mong many
ontemporary
orms
f
heterolog-
ical
voyages.
Constitution
f
the
Corpus
Fundamentally,
he material f
the
corpus
will
be
provided by
various
reference
works.5
My
researchbears
only
on the narratives f
travelers,
nd
not-
except
for texts
unavailable elsewhere-on
the
innumerable
recueils
r
histoires
generales
es
voyages
hat
attempt,
s
compilations
or
anthologies,
to
repeat
the
ancient
cosmographic
model
or to constitute totalization
f
the
encyclopedic
type.6
The
proposed
research will extend
thus fromthe
voyage
of Paulmier de
Gonneville
(1504)
to
the
voyages
of
Alexander von Humboldt
(1799-1804):
although
the atter uthor
was not
French,
his texts
willbe
explored
because
they
marka rupture n theconceptionofethnologic xploration. n France,this ame
division
s traced
by
the worksof
Demeunier
(1776),
Volney
1795),
Degerando
(1800),
and
Jauffret
1803)
on
ethnology,7
nd also
by
the new definition hen
given
to
anthropology
for
example,
in
A.-C. Chavannes's
Anthropologie
u
sci-
ence
generale
e
'homme,
788).
Since
thisresearch
concerns n
analysis
f
reports
n
the actual encounterof
a different
ociety
what
willbecome
a terrain t the end of
the
eighteenth
en-
tury)
with
type
f discourse
the
narrative),
will
privilege
exts hat
reat ndian
ethnic
groups,
even
if
their
progressive
ffacement
nd
overlapping
with
he col-
onizers, half-breeds,
nd mulattos
n the
observations
f
the
voyagers and
how
Travel
Narratives
f
the
French o Brazil
223
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could
this
have been
otherwise,
iven
the racial
mixtures haracteristic
f Portu-
guese
colonization
and the
demographic
hecatomb
brought
bout
by
the
Euro-
peans)
prevent
me
from
imiting
he
corpus
to texts hat
peak only
of Indians.
I
will
add
that,
during
my
different
eriods
of work n Latin
America since
1966,
I have paid particularattention o the vestigesof Indian culturesand to the
present
ituation
f
these
groups.8
Likewise,
t will
be
necessary
o
investigate
he relationsbetween travel
nar-
ratives nd
contemporary philosophers
for
example
Jean
de
Lery
and
Mon-
taigne,
Bougainville
and
Diderot),
mathematicians
see
the
exemplary
case of
Cook),
biologists
Lery
and
Wotton,
or
xample).
On this
spect
of the
problem,
substantial
tudies
already
provide
a foundation.9
will
rely
on
manuscripts
n
the National
Archives
colonial
series),
the Archives
f the
French
Overseas Ter-
ritories
deposits
on
fortifications
f the
colonies),
and the Archivesof
Foreign
Affairs memoirs and documents) only to illuminateparticulardossiers. The
same
will be
true for
the archives
preserved
at
Lisbon
(Biblioteca
nacional),
at
Porto
(Museu
de
etnografia
hist6ria),
t Rio
de
Janeiro
Instituto
hist6rico
geografico
brasileiro),
and at
Recife
(Instituto
Joaquim
Nabuco
de
pesquisas
sociais),
where
I have made
preliminary
nquiries,relying
n
important
nfor-
mation
from
Brazilian historians.?1
Methodology
There is
an abundant
scientific
iterature
n this
subject.1
The rich-
ness
of these
studies
and
of
this accumulated
material
enables and
calls for a
different
ay
of
reading
and
discussing
hese travelnarratives.
n addition
to
the
research,
which
ims
to construct
he
corpus
defined bove
(a
corpus
thathas
not
been the
object
of
any
of
the studies
cited),
wishto indicate
threeconcerns
that
will
help
clarifymy
methodology.
1)
The
first nvolves
he treatment
f the texts.
The
studiesthat
have
pub-
lished and
the
teaching
that
have
regularly
ngaged
in
at the Centre
interna-
tional
de
semiotique
n
Urbino
and in Parissince 1969
lead
me to think hat t
s
possible
to associate a semiotic nalysisof documentswith historical roblem-
atic.
As
narratives,
hese
texts
particularly
end themselves
o studies
concerning
narrativity,
nunciation,
the
modalities
and
the
functioning
f the text.
n this
way,
hope
to define
literary
tructure
f scientific
ork,
narrative
nstrumen-
tality
f
investigation,
n sum a
kind of
writing
elating
o the
process
of research
more
than
to itsresults.
The work
of
Alain Girard
on
nineteenth-century
iaries,
of Tzvetan
Todorov
on
the fantastic
ovel
during
the
same
period,
or of
Philippe
Lejeune
on
autobiography
lready
demonstrate
he historical
nterest f
thiskind
of
analysis.
2) The identification nd the historicalvariantsof this scientific genre
224
REPRESENTATIONS
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authorize
comparison
with other
kinds
of
narratives
of
travel and
discovery:
scholarly,
hemical,
astronomical,
mystical,
nd
so
on. In
this
way,
a
kind of
research
and discourse
thatcrosses
distinct
ields,
nd
opens
the
objectivepossi-
bility
f
interdisciplinary
ork,
becomes available.
Between differentiated
ci-
ences,a historical ohesionappears that oncernsnotonlypostulates,deologies,
and
objects
of
knowledge
common to
these sciences
but a manner of
proceeding
linked
to a manner
of
writing,
hat
s to
say,
to a
method.
Doubtless,
referring
results
o the manner
of
producing
them
that
s to
say,
o the
discovery
nd the
manifestation
f these
results)
corresponds
to an essential
aspect
of
modernity,
to an historicization
f
knowledge
which
precedes
theories
f
history).12
3)
Finally,
esearch
already
undertaken
to
elaborate
a
concept
of
science/
fiction,
hat s
to
say
not a reduction
of science to fiction
ut a mixture
f
narra-
tion
and
scientific
ractices,
eads me
to
try
o ocate
n travelnarratives he
forms
thatthis combinationof the rules of literary roductionand those controlling
scientific
roduction
akes.
The travel
narrative scillates
etween
hesetwo
poles
and
permits
he elaboration
of a
theory
f this ssociation:
the travel
narrative s
a text
of observation
haunted
by
its
Other,
the
imaginary.
n
this
way
it
corre-
sponds
to its
object,
a
culture haunted
by
ts
savage
exteriority.
t
appears
to
offer
particularly
nteresting
ield
for the construction
f an
epistemological
model
that
legitimates
he actual
functioning
f the
human
sciences.
Current
research
for
example
at the
Department
f
Philosophy
t
Cambridge
University)
on
the
relation between
scientific iscourse
and
metaphor,
elief and the
imagi-
nary such
as the work
of
Gerald
Holton
on the
central
role of
theme
n
scientific
creativity) uggest
promising
imultaneity
f work nthisdirection.13
Through
the
travel
narrative,
an
ideal of
science becomes available
for
analysis,
nd with
t a
configuration
f the ensemble
of
knowledge.
But
only
a
local
study, artial
nd
precise,
an
permit
he detailed
disassembling
f the subtle
mechanisms
that articulate
between
themselves
narrativity,cientificity,
nd the
efficacy
f each.
-Translated
by
Katharine
Streip
Notes
1.
See,
for
example,
the Ortusmedicinae
f
Jean
Baptiste
van
Helmont;
Le
Labyrinthe
u
monde t
e
paradis
du coeur f
Comenius,
the
heuristic
notations f
Girard
Desargues
on his
projective
geometry,
nd so
on.
1.
I will
rely
here on the work of
Erwin
Panofsky,
rancois de
Dainville,
and
Jacques
Guillerme.
3.
I
have
already
studied
this
theme n the case of
Jean
de
Lery.
See Michel de
Certeau,
The
WritingfHistory,
rans.
Tom
Conley
New
York,
1988),
209-43.
4. I have
already
dedicated two studies to the
way
n
which Freud's
contribution nter-
rogates
and illuminates he
workof
the
historian;
ee
The
WritingfHistory,
87-354.
5. See GeorgesRaeders and Edson Neryda Fonseca,Bibliographiefranco-bresilienneRio
Travel
Narratives f
the French to Brazil
225
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de
Janeiro,
1960);
Anatole Louis
Garraux,
Bibliographie
resilienne:
atalogue
es ouv-
ragesfrancais
t
atins
elatifs
u
Bresil,
500-1898,
2nd
ed.
(Rio
de
Janeiro,
1962).
It is
of
course
necessary
o add Edward
Godfrey
Cox,
A
Reference
uide o the iterature
f
Travel,
vols.
(Seattle,
1935-38);
and
catalogue
O
of the
Bibliotheque
nationale,
His-
toria xotica, eregrina,ivererumfricanarum,siaticarum,mericanarum,tnovi rbis ..
scriptores,
tinera,
eu
peregrinationes
t
navigationes
ariae,
500-1864. These
two collec-
tions
complete
the two
preceding
and
permit
me to establish n initial istof French
voyages
to Brazil.
6. See Franco
Simone,
La Notion
d'Encyclopedie:
Element
caracteristique
e la Renais-
sance
francaise,
n
Peter
Sharratt, d.,
French enaissance
tudies,
540-1570
(Edin-
burgh,
1976),
234-62.
7. See
Sergio
Moravia,
La scienzia
ell'uomo
el ettecento
Bari,
It.,
1970).
8. See Michel de
Certeau,
The Politics f Silence: The
Long
March of the
Indians,
n
Heterologies:
iscourse n
the
Other,
rans.Brian Massumi
Minneapolis,
1986),
225-33.
9.
Urs
Bitterli,
ie Wilder nd
die
Zivilisierten
Munich, 1976);
Sergio
Landucci,
filosofi
i selvaggi, 580-1780 (Bari, It., 1972); Moravia,La scienzia ell'uomo;MicheleDuchet,
Anthropologie
thistoireu siecle
es
Lumieres
Paris, 1971).
10. See
especiallyJose
Honorio
Rodrigues,
Asfontes
a
historia o Brasilna
Europa
Rio
de
Janeiro,
1950);
Rodrigues,
Historiografia
el
Brasil,
iglo
XVII
(Mexico
City,
963);
Flo-
restan
Fernandes,
Organizacao
ocial dos
Tupinambd
Sao
Paulo,
1963);
Fernandes,
A
funcao
ocial
da
guerra
a
sociedade
upinambd
Sao
Paulo,
1952).
11.
Since
the
pioneering
work of
Atkinson,
n
particular,
ee the workof
Baudet, Boxer,
Bucher, Gandia,
Gerbi, Gove,
Hanke,
Buarque
de
Holanda, Manuel, Morison,
Pen-
rose,
Skelton,
not
forgetting
he
catalogue L'Amerique
ue
par
l'Europe
Paris, 1976).
12.
Here we can extend
to scientific
writing
he
perspectives
pened
by
Lucien
Braun,
Histoire
e l'histoire
e
la
philosophie
Paris,
1973);
Claude-Gilbert
Dubois,
La
Conception
de l'histoiren France u XVIe siecleParis, 1977); or byDonald R. Kelley, oundationsf
ModernHistorical
cholarship
New
York,
1970).
13. The
same is true
for historical
works uch
as Charles
Webster,
he
Great nstauration:
Science,
Medicine,
nd
Reform,
626-1660
(London,
1975);
and
BettyJ.
T.
Dobbs,
The
Foundations
f
Newton's
lchemy
Cambridge,
1975).
226
REPRESENTATIONS
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