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The Language of Supremacy

O. A. Carey Turnquest and John Molina


Travels to Brazil, in the years 1817-1820, a detailed description of Dr. Johannes Baptist Spix and Dr. Carl Friedrich Philipp Martius’ observations and thoughts during their journeys to Brazil, offers insight into the nineteenth-century European mindset. King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria commissioned these two scientists to research and report on Brazil. Spix and Martius not only attempt to transcribe their personal experiences and observations in the foreign nation for the King of Bavaria, but also choose to comment on and editorialize their experiences. They position themselves, for the most part, as invisible, passive observers. Indeed, as scientists, Spix and Martius utilize a professional methodology enabling them to distance themselves from their text while also objectifying the Brazilian landscape and its people. However, Travels to Brazil is not solely a scientific report. Through the details included and the subtleties of the language used, the authors perpetuate the prevalent nineteenth-century ideology of European supremacy through the air of detachment and objectivity which they assume in the text.

In Travels to Brazil, Spix and Martius assert that Brazil will become an enlightened, civilized society like Europe. The doctors evince this imperialist philosophy in their observation that “the influence of the civilization of ancient and enlightened Europe effaced the character of an American wilderness in this cultivation” (Book I, p. 133). Describing their visit to Rio de Janeiro, Spix and Martius highlight the beneficent European presence accompanying the Portuguese court’s flight to Brazil. Spix and Martius’ arrival in Brazil in 1817 coincided with the tenth anniversary of Dom João’s departure from Lisbon, for Rio de Janeiro, and they repeatedly invoke this event as a turning point in the advancement of the Brazilian nation. In addition, “royal establishment inspired [the authors] with a favourable [sic] opinion” of the citizens of Sorocaba (II, 45). The Portuguese royal family in Brazil had, in the eyes of Spix and Martius, improved the Brazilian territory in immeasurable ways. These themes — of Europe providing the "stamp of higher cultivation" and developing the wilderness — pervade the tone, style and content of Spix and Martius’ travelogue (I, 133). The descriptions of the eager adoption of European manners and modes of thought in urban thought in urban Brazil, such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, reinforce Spix and Martius’ faith in the potential of European models of society.

The authors laud the European influence on the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, creating the impression of an authorial bias toward the city over the countryside. In particular, the authors value the Portuguese commitment to the improvement of the aesthetics of Brazilian cities; Spix and Martius claim that “the presence of the court [in Rio de Janeiro] already [had begun] to have a favorable effect on the style of the buildings” (I, 137). Spix and Martius demonstrate this focus in their observation that “the inhabitants of Taubaté have the appearance of more prosperity and refinement than those of the other small places through which we had before traveled; which is perhaps owing to their more lively intercourse with Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo” (I, 314). The authors’ admiration for Europe’s influence in urban Brazil perpetuates nineteenth-century imperialism even after Dom João’s departure from Brazil.

In their description of Rio de Janeiro, Spix and Martius’ insistence on the inferiority of Brazilian institutions of education, commerce, and culture functions to justify further European intervention. Travels in Brazil describes the general lack of interest in literature and current world affairs observed in Brazil, the sub-par Brazilian education system, the lack of scholars at the Academia Militar Real, and the reliance on European institutions to educate the elite. The scientists write of the urgency of establishing a system resembling the German high schools. Furthermore, Brazilians, according to Spix and Martius, lack “any taste for painting and sculpture” (I, 156). Brazil’s inferior Italian opera and architectural styles lead the authors to advocate for further European influence in Brazil, as they suggest that “the monarch [King Maximilian I of Bavaria] of so promising and rising a kingdom should contribute to the development of Brazil” (II, 137). The text clearly hints at the King of Bavaria’s intentions to expand Bavaria’s influence in Brazil, thereby promoting European supremacy in the New World.

The authors further manifest their belief in European superiority in their obvious discomfort with the large population of people of color in Brazil. The black and indigenous populace bring customs and traditions to Brazil that seem foreign and primitive to the Bavarian authors. In Rio de Janeiro, the authors feel as if they are in “a strange quarter of the world” (I, 134). They write of the large population of people of color in this city, which they find “less agreeable than […] striking” (I, 134). This is one of the few points in the narrative in which the authors expose their emotions, and their apparent discomfort corresponds to the racist ideals associated with imperialism: “The degraded brutish nature of these half-naked, unfortunate men offends the feelings of the European, who has but just quitted the seat of polite manners and agreeable forms” (I, 134). The scientists convey that the European way of life is better than that of the Afro- or indigenous Brazilian.

The detailed manner in which Spix and Martius delineate the indigenous and African populations aligns with the work’s tendency to dehumanize and “other” non- white populations. The authors focus primarily on the mestizaje of the Indians and the Afro-Brazilians, whom they present as bizarre and sub-human, though it is evident that they had very limited exposure to them. Their scientific tone undermines the humanity of the people at a rancho they encounter:

In this part, we met with several families of the people called Cafusos, who are a mixture of blacks and Indians. Their external appearance is one of the strangest that a European can meet with. They are slender and muscular, in particular the muscles of the breast and arms are very strong; the feet, on the contrary, in proportion, weaker. Their colour is a dark copper, or coffee brown. Their features, on the whole, have more of the Ethiopic than of the American race. The countenance is oval, the cheek-bones high, but not so broad as the Indians; the nose broad and flattened, but neither turned up nor much bent… (I, 323).

Spix and Martius portray the Cafusos as exotic, but, paradoxically, the very straightforwardness of their depiction limits the excitement aroused in the reader. They have no redeemable qualities—only a “striking appearance” and “a strange head of hair” (I, 324). The empirical tone that the scientists adopt separates and distinguishes them from the indigenous people around them, as it elevates their supreme rationality over the primitiveness of the native Brazilians.

The indigenous Brazilian, exemplarily primitive in his backwardness and lack of sophistication, is also subject to much objectification in this text. The authors’ characterization of the disposition of the Indian as “almost wholly underdeveloped” demonstrates a lack of understanding for their culture (I, 241). Disparaging the polygamous relationships that Indian men have with women, the authors claim that the indigenous Brazilian “follows mere animal instinct more than tender attachment” (I, 241). Also, because the Indian, unlike the European, does not store food for several days and takes from the land only what is necessary for that day, the authors assert that the Indian “scarcely distinguish[es] the past from the future” and thus is not forward-thinking (I, 241). Such statements, which reflect Spix and Martius’ ignorance about the Brazilian indigenous culture, convey the nineteenth-century European’s perceived supremacy over the native Brazilians.

Though the authors devote significant attention to Amerindians, they make little mention of Afro-Brazilian slaves. However, blacks do appear in the scientific narrative, if only in a subordinate and degrading position. In Travels in Brazil, Spix and Martius juxtapose the inferiority of the “Negroes” in terms of intelligence, manners, and culture with the “polished society” of Europe (I, 156). While the authors mention the Afro- Brazilian contribution to Brazilian culture in bringing African beats and dances to Brazil, they denigrate the dances and critique their “indecency.” The authors do not respect such black aspects of dance and music due to their deviations from the European ideal.

Throughout Travels in Brazil, Spix and Martius reinforce the ingrained notion of European superiority in contrast with Brazilian barbarity. The information that was sent to the monarch of Bavaria is laced with imperialist insinuations common to nineteenth- century European writing. The text’s style and tone communicate the racial and geographic hierarchy of the Americas and Europe. The authors portray Brazil as an inferior land and convey Europe’s paternal attitude toward the Americas. Mixed with the descriptions of the Brazilian landscapes, institutions and people is an inexorable disrespect for Brazilian culture. Although Europe’s supremacy over the Americas had been established and documented, Spix and Martius’ writing perpetuates this view. The tone, details and points of view in Travels in Brazil irrefutably disclose the authors’ attitude of European superiority and dominance.

Bibliography

Pratt, Mary Louise. "Travel Narrative and Imperialist Vision." James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz, ed. Understanding Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1994: 199-221.

Spix, Johannes Baptist and Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp. Travels in Brazil in the years 1817-1820. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824.

Written in partial fulfillment of requirements for HI0163.01, Modern Latin America I (Professor James Green – Fall 2005).