Abstract

ROQUE, Ricardo. Colonial mimesis in the Portuguese empire. Etnográfica [online]. 2014, vol.18, n.1, pp.101-109. ISSN 0873-6561.

This article offers an original synthesis of work on the plural and varied phenomena of colonial mimesis in the Portuguese empire. Drawing on the works collected in the special issue “Colonial mimesis: history and theory in the Portuguese empire”, it proposes a research program that, through the lens of both anthropology and history, prioritizes the study of mimesis as a gesture, as a materiality, and as a theory of colonization. The essay considers two main theoretical and critical challenges to this program. On the one hand, the challenge of circumventing the limits of the “mimesis and resistance” duality in the anthropological analysis of this phenomenon; on the other hand, the challenge of avoiding the ideological traps set by ordinary discourses on Portuguese colonial mimesis, which alternate between the critique of its vices and the celebration of its virtues.

Keywords : colonial mimesis; Portuguese empire; black legend; luso-tropicalism; resistance.

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