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







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







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







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







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







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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