Aziz Ab’Sáber and Brazil’s own geography, or, what do the geographer’s discoveries have in common with the historical narratives of indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro?

Abstract

This article explores Aziz Ab'Sáber's contribution to Brazilian geography, articulating his personal and research trajectory on morphoclimatic domains, Pleistocene refuges and paleoindigenous routes with the cosmology of the indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro, in the Northwest Amazon. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Ab'Sáber stated that the occupation of Brazilian territory preceded the arrival of European colonizers, and was marked by human displacements that shaped the landscape and influenced biodiversity. The widely spoken Tupi language and the myths of the peoples of the Rio Negro, such as Tuyuka and Dessana, about the arrival of future humanity in Brazilian territory, evidence an indigenous territoriality that named and gave meaning to forms. By relating science and traditional knowledge, this study suggests a critical reading of Brazilian geography, highlighting that the construction of space was not only due to colonial action, but also to the knowledge and millennial adaptation of the original populations. Thus, proving the hypothesis initially raised, the study demonstrated how Ab'Sáber's thinking allows us to reevaluate Brazil's territorial history, recording its cultural and environmental complexity, and admitting that Brazil's geography is not dissociated from the geography of its original peoples.