Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500-1600

This lucidly written book charts the roles played by intermediaries, or "go-betweens" as Metcalf calls them, in the first century of Portuguese colonization in Brazil. It covers a wide array of "go-betweens," from "ordinary sailors, banished criminals, translators, chroniclers, and mapmakers" through animals and pathogens to Jesuit missionaries and visionary-messianic runaway slaves. By analyzing the roles of such "go-betweens" in specific moments, the book underscores how earlier encounters in the Mediterranean and West Africa served as templates for Brazilian colonization. Yet it also suggests how the emergence of new social categories, including--most crucially for her argument--the mamelucos (descendants of Portuguese-indigenous unions) fundamentally shaped colonial interactions in Brazil. For example, in a fascinating discussion of privatized colonization (ch. 3), Metcalf shows how the command of Tupi eloquent speech styles, on the one hand, and of Portuguese commercial interests (especially...