The effects of colonial power relations in indigenous rights in Brazil : a legal, historical and sociological analysis

Abstract

This thesis seeks to address the effects of colonialism on indigenous rights in Brazil. Through literary research, it seeks to demonstrate how the relationships established in the period of Portuguese domination were perpetuated in time, consolidating and threatening the life, customs and lands of indigenous peoples in Brazil. This study is especially relevant to raise the understanding of why native peoples are today in a state of vulnerability and how colonial relations contributed to their finding themselves in this situation. It was concluded that only through breaking with these colonial models of power is it possible to devise truly effective solutions to protect indigenous peoples. Thus, it was found that colonial power relations are still very present both in the national reality of Brazil and in the international community. Furthermore, these relationships are very harmful, since they place non- Western cultures in a place of inferiority, seeking to assimilate and erase them. In this way, they must be broken so that the real and effective expression of Brazilian multiculturalism can be possible, in order to allow not only the expansion of the expression and political participation of these peoples, but also to allow the existence of different ways of living, thinking and to organise socially, economically and politically.