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The pre-Cabraline history of Brazil is the stage in Brazil's history before the arrival of Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500,[1] at a time when the region that is now Brazilian territory was occupied by thousands of indigenous peoples.
Traditional prehistory is generally divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods. However, in Brazil, some authors prefer to work with the geological epochs of the current Quaternary period: Pleistocene and Holocene.[2] In this sense, the most accepted periodization is divided into: Pleistocene (hunters and gatherers at least 12,000 years ago) and Holocene, the latter being subdivided into Early Archaic (between 12,000 and 9,000 years ago), Middle Archaic (between 9,000 and 4,500 years ago) and Recent Archaic (from 4,000 years ago until the arrival of the Europeans). It is believed that the first peoples began to inhabit the region where Brazil is now located 60,000 years ago.[2]
The expression "prehistory of Brazil" is also used to refer to this period, but the term has been criticized since the concept of prehistory is questioned by some scholars as being a Eurocentric worldview, in which people without writing would be people without history. In the context of Brazilian history, this nomenclature would not accept that the indigenous people had their own history.[1] For this reason, some prefer to call this period pre-Cabraline.[3]
- ^ a b da Cunaha, Manuela Carneiro (2008). História dos Índios no Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo. ISBN 9788571642607.
- ^ a b Prous, André (1991). Arqueologia brasileira (in Brazilian Portuguese). Editora Universidade de Brasília. ISBN 978-85-230-0316-6.
- ^ Guzmán, Décio de Alencar (7 February 2005). "Carlos Fausto, Os índios antes do Brasil.,Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Zahar Editor, 2000. 94 pp. (Coleção "Descobrindo o Brasil")". Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. doi:10.4000/nuevomundo.398. ISSN 1626-0252.