A viagem de Theodore Roosevelt pelo Noroeste Brasileiro : caça, ciência e representações da floresta tropical (1913-1914)

Abstract

In 1913 Theodore Roosevelt decided to undertake an expedition to the unexplored territories in Brazil. The ex-President and the Colonel Cândido Rondon, with support of the American Museum of Natural History, shared the command of an expedition that it’s objectives were to hunt big game trophies, obtain specimens of flora, map the unknown river and make contact with the Indians. Although the expedition was self-defined as a scientific mission and was conducted with the support of the Brazilian government, the analyzed documentation (that covers Roosevelt’s travel diary andnewspapers of the period, as well as the iconography of the “jungle’s inhabitants”) identified elements of U.S. imperialism in the Americas. This paper argues that those sources have a dialogue that combines the idea of the imperialism science with the superior American attitude towards Brazil during the early twentieth century. The images and travel log produced by Roosevelt's campaign had an aesthetic/narrative construction similar to the representations produced by the British hunting sport in Africa and Asia, usually associated with European imperialism. They would also be presented to the American public as a record of Natural History and used as a way to recreate the “Amazon jungle” environment. The process of choosing the type of animal that should be hunted or recorded by the camera helped to clarify the relationship between science, hunting, image and imperialism. It’s interesting to raise questions like: what were the main animals hunted and photographed; how was it presented to the U.S public; what those animals represented; and how this representations helped to shape concepts about Brazil? Therefore, this thesis tries to evaluate the theoretical and practical exercise of science performed by Roosevelt, and its effect on the American cultural scene in the early twentieth century.