Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Glossary
aldeia.
Missionized Indian settlement.
aniga.
Giant aquatic phildendron.
aturizais.
Thickets of shrubby tropical legumes,
Machaerium
.
audiencia.
Court. In the New World,
audiencias
were given a consultative and quasi-legislative role in
administration of the territories, but the viceroyalty, like that of Lima, was the ultimate seat of power
over the
audiencias
under Spanish colonial law.
bandeirante.
Brazilian flag-bearing explorer or slaver.
barracão,
pl.
barracões.
Trading post.
batelão.
Small vessel, usually with multiple rowers or small engines.
brejos.
Wetlands.
buchita
(
Calliandra trinerva
). An aquatic vine common in the Upper Amazon that often clogs the sur-
face of small rivers.
caboclos.
Acculturated Indians (early meaning); backwoods populations, hicks (later).
cafuz.
Person of mixed black and Indian ancestry.
cascarilheiro.
Quinine gatherer.
caucheiro.
Extractor of latex from
Castilla
trees. The term can refer to either the workers themselves or
the barons.
caudillo
. Military strongman.
cholas.
Mixed-blood populations of white and native from Peru.
chuncho.
Uncatechized, “wild,” or savage Indian.
Code Noir.
Code defining the conditions of slavery—its rights, obligations, and sanctions—in the
French colonial empire. It defined the terms of liberty of various kinds of slaves, restricted the activit-
ies of free blacks, required Roman Catholicism as the defining religion, and ordered all Jews out of
France's colonies. See
Wikipedia
's helpful checklist in its “Code Noir” entry.
comísariá.
Checkpoint, customs house, and police station.
comissário.
Head of a commission or chief of party. Da Cunha uses this term often when referring to
Alexandre Buenaño.
cordel.
Illustrated chapbook.
coronais.
Landowners and militia leaders.
currais.
Literally, corrals or cattle camps, but applied during the Northeastern droughts to refugee
camps.
cushma.
Woven cotton robe, similar to a Roman toga, sewn at the shoulders and sides; widely used by
the Campa Indians and Shipibo of the Upper Amazon.
Directoria.
Indian labor depot village.
drogas do sertão.
Amazon backland essences and animal products—for example, sarsaparilla (thought
to be a cure for syphilis), turtle butter, manioc, dried fish, oils, and herbs.
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