Brazil between the border of the real and the imaginary: cultural confrontation and military between Indians and Portuguese

Abstract

The article tries to demonstrate that the cultural and military confrontation among indians and portugueses represented, on the one hand, in the 16th century, a difficulty for the Lusitanian penetration in Brazil, on the other hand, in the 17th century, a facility for the colonization of the Brazilian territory; the tenuous frontier among the real and the imaginary contributed for the Terra de Santa Cruz to remain abandoned in the beginning of colonization.