IDEOLOGY AND TRADITION OF DRUG USERS IN THE COLONIAL AMAZONIA

Abstract

Abstract: In this text, we seek to indicate how the bearers of a religious ideology of medieval origin described the drunkenness of the indigenous peoples in the 18th century Amazon. We privileged the analysis of the accounts of the work “Tesouro Descoberto no Máximo Rio Amazonas” by the Portuguese Jesuit, João Daniel. Highlighting the contradictions and approximations established between, on the one hand, a colonization based on the production and commerce of drugs and Catholic food tradition based on wine and bread, and on the other hand, an ideology of abuse elaborated to account for the indigenous tradition of drinks ingestion and substances extracted from the forest.

Keywords: Colonial Amazon. Drunkenness. Drugs. Missionaries.