“Não basta produzir borracha”

José Veríssimo (1857-1916) e a “civilização” do sertão amazônico no Grão-Pará (1883-1886)

Abstract

This paper analyzes José Veríssimo’s political-intellectual project dedicated to investigating the Amazonian backlands in the context of modernization. It argues that José Veríssimo updated Ferreira Penna’s (1818-1888) scientific project, institutionalized in the Paraense Museum, by publishing the Revista Amazônica (1883-1884) and writing of the essay “The Indigenous and Mestizo Populations in the Amazon” (1886). “It is not enough to produce rubber” was their answer to the “civilization” of the Amazonian backlands, evidenced in the project to ‘reform the customs’ of the indigenous and mestizo populations via sedentary agricultural work, to which José Veríssimo added miscegenation under the auspices of the 1870 generation.