Discursive matrices in photographic sources: a nation under construction in the daily life of indigenous posts in Brazil

Abstract

The set of practices established in the indigenous posts, agencies created by the Indian Protection Service (SPI), aimed, in the medium and long term, to abandon some habits and adopt others. At least, this was the organ's conviction that the bodies of the Indians, through continuous and systematic actions, would gradually become more harmonious, submissive and obedient, in their civilizing conception. In several excerpts from the SPI documentation, employees discuss the result of the pacification of the Indians and of the entire process of transforming the Indian into "civilized", through a set of disciplinary actions, which is used in the daily practice of indigenous posts and , more than that, as a guide to be followed in several situations. In order to understand this process, it is necessary to consider that from 1910 - when the Indian Protection Service was created -, the Brazilian State began to adopt a policy of integrating indigenous peoples into the national construction project with the Indians of Brazil. . Starting from an evolutionary conception, the project was part of a program that aimed to consolidate the country as a nation-state. This integration, along the lines of a homogenizing identity construction, is printed in the images, here under analysis, from the archives of the Indian Protection Service.