Abstract

XAVIER, Ângela Barreto. They look like Indians in their color and feature: the “black legend” and the indianization of the Portuguese. Etnográfica [online]. 2014, vol.18, n.1, pp.111-133. ISSN 0873-6561.

This article focuses on the linkages between mimesis, Indianization of the Portuguese established in India from the 16^th century, and the development of a “black legend” on the Portuguese empire. In which ways the going native of the Portuguese was perceived and presented, internally and externally, as undesirable? How did this perception contributed to produce a negative idea of the Portuguese behavior in colonial context? And in which ways the going native was associated with the conviction that the Portuguese were unable to govern themselves (since they could not control their passions, their inner nature), and therefore, incapable of governing the others? The Travel Account of the Voyage of the Sailor Jan Huyghen van Linschoten to the Portuguese East India, first published in Holland in 1596, is a good place to start with in order to discuss these questions. By analyzing Linschoten’s treatise, as well as its inspirations and reverberations in the next centuries, I intend to contribute to the making of a genealogy of the “black legend” of the Portuguese empire, identifying its origins in the first decades of the 16^th century.

Keywords : mimesis; empire; black legend; Portugal; India.

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