Carolina Monteiro is a PhD candidate at Leiden University as part of the ERC Project BRASILIAE. Indigenous Knowledge in the Making of Science: Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), directed by P.I. Dr. Mariana de Campos Françozo. Carolina’s research focuses on the knowledge, cultural practices and social role of enslaved Africans from different points of origin and cultural backgrounds in the period of Dutch Brazil (1630-1654), beyond their captivity status.

More information about Carolina Pereira De Queiroz Monteiro

Office days

Carolina Monteiro is present at the Faculty on the following days:

• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday

Research

The research is centered, but not limited to, the information contained in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (HNB), published in Amsterdam in 1648. Considered one of the first comprehensive books exclusively focusing on Brazilian natural history, the HNB presents detailed information gathered by Willem Piso (1611-1678) and Georg Marcgraf (1610-1644) about the medicinal use of plants, zoology, botany and ethnography, among other topics, during their sojourn in Brazil.

Despite its prevalent description of Brazilian natural history through the lens of indigenous knowledge, the book is also filled with valuable information regarding the knowledge introduced by the thousands of people enslaved in different parts of the African continent and sent to Brazil before and during the period of Dutch colonization. It contains descriptions of certain plants and animals transported to Brazil from Africa, the use of enslaved African workforce in the sugar industry and their knowledge in the u se of na tural elements for different purposes such as medicinal healing, poisoning and spiritual elevation.

Although African knowledge from a variety of cultures permeated all spheres of the colonial structure of Dutch Brazil, studies focusing on African heritage, culture and knowledge of the period are yet to be found in scholarly research, which usually approaches African diaspora from its economic impact in European societies. In an attempt to revert this Eurocentric perspective this research focuses on the knowledge, cultural practices and social role of enslaved Africans of different origins and backgrounds beyond their economic impact to Western societies. Combining relevant practices in the fields of social and cultural history, archaeology, anthropology and art history, the investigation is based on the information gathered from the HNB and other seventeenth-century documentation and evidence. This includes literary and iconographic analyses of European and Luso-Brazilian sources together with the material examination of seventeenth-century objects and artefacts produced by enslave d Africans and Afro-Brazilians under the Dutch rule in Brazil.

Curriculum Vitae

Carolina Monteiro holds a Bachelor degree in Cultural Management from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and two Master degrees in Arts and Culture from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) and Leiden University. Her previous researches are based on her interest in the role of museums in contemporary societies and how institutional discourses can end up reinforcing Eurocentric historical and art-historical perspectives in a neocolonial manner. Her professional career also includes practical experiences in art institutions in Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands.

In the first semester of 2019 Carolina completed her second Master’s in Arts and Culture (Cum Laude), specializing in Museums and Collections at Leiden University, with the thesis “Colonial Representations of Brazil and their current display at Western museums: The Mauritshuis case and the Dutch gaze,” while working at the Mauritshuis Museum as a Junior Researcher.

Publications