Modernity/coloniality in the national imaginary on Amazon in a third world context

Abstract

This article seeks to present imaginaries that have been built on the Amazon since the colonial period and also during the process of developing a national project, such as the Eldorado, demographic void and “lung of the planet”, and how these images, through the notion of modernity/ coloniality, still permeate our imagination and hence our actions. The research, then, aimed to understand how this logic of modernity/coloniality is present in the national imaginary about the Amazon. To that end, it is guided by decolonial studies seeking to understand how modernity/coloniality permeates the Amazon, drawing particularly on Arturo Escobar’s concepts that are fundamental for the discussion and criticism about the
development and practices of resistance based on the place. Based on a qualitative approach, this research, characterized as descriptive, draws on bibliographic review and on an online survey for data collection as its methodological procedures. Findings allow us to conclude that the logics of development contribute to continued processes of modernity/coloniality in the Amazon, thus directly impacting its population, which is characterized in the national imaginary as underdeveloped, backward, primitive, besides other stereotypes originated from the colonial period and perpetuated to the present day. In view of this, I believe that this article will greatly contribute to our understanding of the dynamics that are placed in the Amazon and how this affects its population through an imaginary that has been built on the region.
imaginary that has been built on the region.