Roosevelt's Amazon: A Life Dedicated to the Indigenous Peoples of the Rainforest

Abstract

Anna C. Roosevelt is one of the most important scholars of the Amazon. In the late 1970s, the American archaeologist caused a revolution in the archaeological thinking of South America's lowlands by opposing the ecological determinism that dominated archaeological thought at the time. Roosevelt brought significant visibility and prominence to the history of Brazilian indigenous peoples, asserting that the original peoples who inhabited the region thrived in the tropical environment, achieving the status of civilization. This article revisits her chapter published in the work that inaugurated the so-called New Indigenous History, which remains a cornerstone in understanding the traditional peoples of the Amazon.