Since the 1980s, the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin and the West Indies have been the subject of renewed interest from researchers in the humanities and social sciences, who have shed new light on the subject, often in stark contrast to long-standing historiographical traditions. These studies have led to a reassessment of the writings of travelers, missionaries and colonial administrators from the 16th to 18th centuries, long considered to be objective and infallible accounts of Indigenous populations. In addition, the multiplication of sites of observation – material culture, linguistic phenomena, socio-political aspects, etc. – has revealed a high degree of interconnectedness in the daily practices of the Indigenous Islanders and Continental groups, but also of allochthonous populations from Europe and Africa that converged in the region. This goes far beyond the antagonisms amplified by colonial sources. At odds with a dichotomous perception, the interconnectedness and dynamics of cohabitation gave rise, on the one hand, to the emergence of new identities and practices and, on the other, to the continuity of societies in their diversity, as well as to various forms of discontinuity.

The inter-regional dimension of this interdisciplinary colloquium will help us to define the networks woven by the Indigenous peoples in the Americas, particularly in South America, the Caribbean and, potentially, Central America. The historical, evolutionary and contemporary perspectives of specialists in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, history, linguistics and sociology will enable us to better grasp the multiple facets of historical and cultural transmission, the construction of identities, and modes of interpretation of Indigenous heritage memory.