Archaism and coloniality:strategies of historiographicalconcealment of the problemof dependency

Abstract

This article aims to highlight how issues raised by dependency theory have been obscured in approaches such as those found in the book O arcaísmo como projeto by João Fragoso and Manolo Florentino, and the collection O Antigo Regime nos trópicos. Through a concise assessment of the academic and political standing of dependency theory between the 1960s and 1980s—and by revisiting analyses by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Enzo Faletto, and, notably, Aníbal Quijano—the study demonstrates how, since the 1990s, the rise of a new explanatory model for the study of Portuguese-colonized America has relied on historiographical maneuvers characterized by the flawed dismissal of a complex body of authors and ideas, as well as the reproduction of conservative concepts rooted in development theory.