'Zumbi nunca vai morrer': History, the practice of archaeology, and race politics in Brazi

This dissertation explores the intersection of history, archaeology and contemporary sociopolitical issues in making the history of Palmares, a seventeenth-century Brazilian runaway slave polity of ten villages, or quilombos. The research starts by identifying the official history of Palmares, a version of the past constructed in the academy by mostly left-leaning intellectuals, and by the public through celebration of the heroic deeds of the Palmarinos, particularly the warrior-king, Zumbi. Palmares has been appropriated successfully for contemporary discourse on a wide variety of issues that seeks to confront social injustices in Brazilian society. Previous studies of Palmares, whether based on documentary or archaeological data, mention the plurality of the quilombo; that is, the presence of Whites, Africans, Afro-Brazilians, and Native American Indians, and other groups oppressed by colonial governments. Nonetheless, these works emphasize the African contribution to the formation and sociopolitical organization of the quilombo. Recent archaeological evidence demonstrates that the continued emphasis on Africans and Afro-Brazilians at Palmares is no longer tenable. Drawing on ethnographic, documentary, and archaeological data, this research takes the first step toward building an alternative history of Palmares. In particular, I consider more closely the contribution of South American Indians to the quilombo. Questioning the sacrosanct image of Palmares, however, has brought the archaeology of Palmares into direct conflict with heritage and race politics. In searching for the foundations of the resistance to an archaeology of Palmares, I reveal that the official history of Palmares, as well as the rendering of an alternative, involves diverse and competing ideologies of the political left and Black movements. I demonstrate that the official history of Palmares, to which archaeology arguably lends scientific credence, is out-of-step with an afrocentric ideology for race discourse held by those who now hold political power over the Serra da Barriga, and thus archaeological excavations and access to the material record of the Palmarinos. The dissertation raises questions central to archaeology and history in the new millennium. What constitutes official and alternative histories? How do anthropologists assess these histories if identified? Finally, what is the role of the archaeologist in studying politically visible and sensitive subjects?...