E através das palavras se desvelaram os mais recônditos confins de dentro : quatro relatos sobre os sertões da capitania de Pernambuco (1774-1820)

Abstract

This research raises and analyzes the images that were built on the sertões of the captaincy of Pernambuco through four reports written by authors who somehow experienced these lands in loco, and who had their texts written and/or published in the time frame that goes from 1774 to 1820, that is, between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The first of these sources is anonymous, the second by Father Manuel Aires de Casal, the third by the traveler Henry Koster, and the fourth by the naturalists Spix and Martius. In these reports it is possible to find a series of important information about life in the Pernambuco backlands, about the populations that settled there and also about the country culture that was consolidating in those corners of the caatinga, mainly thanks to livestock. It was possible to verify that these images about the sertões of Pernambuco and its people contained in the reports form, together, some recurring categories, which were identified by this research and listed in the final considerations of the work. This amalgamation of complex ideas came to be directly associated with the backlands of the Northeast portion of Portuguese America in general, and with the country culture of the so-called “Leather Civilization”, as Capistrano de Abreu would say. Inscribed in the long term, these formulations and images still today remain related to this universe, forming an imaginary about the sertões and their populations, which reaffirms the importance of this discussion in the sense of expanding the understanding of the history and culture of the sertões and the sertanejos in the Pernambuco caatinga.