Caçadores-coletores: ciência e caça nas expedições científicas norte-americanas no Brasil, 1933-1945

Abstract

In 1933, the Provisional Government led by Getúlio Vargas created the Council of Surveillance of Artistic and Scientific Expeditions in Brazil (CFE), with the objective of preventing the departure of objects from its natural and artistic heritage and guaranteeing a part of what was collected in the country for Brazilian institutions. At a time when Brazil was approaching the United States, which competed with Germany for influence in the country even before the outbreak of World War II, scientists and other North American explorers carried out expeditions to collect animals and other natural objects, which were exported to enrich the collections of museums and other scientific institutions in the United States. In this context, the Council did not properly carry out its inspection work. This was partly for the benefit of diplomatic relations with the Americans; on the other hand, due to private interests and institutional disputes that prevented the full exercise of their functions. Both factors prevented a greater transit of knowledge between the two countries, such as the incorporation of more animals into the national collections and greater interactions between scientists from both countries. In addition, hunters and collectors used scientific justifications to take countless animals abroad. The cases analyzed in this work demonstrate how, even an authoritarian government of nationalist inspiration, failed to prevent the influx of natural heritage objects to an allied country. The thesis also seeks to show how the boundaries between hunting and science were blurred in the period and how this was reflected in the CFE's inspection