A cidade e o rio: a navegação fluvial e o extrativismo vegetal na formação do espaço de Floriano-PI (1890 -1950)

Abstract

The researches conducted allow to understand the formation of the urban space of Floriano - PI, reviewing its genesis, evolution and consolidation, highlighting that the current urban structure is a result, therefore, in part, of the initial location of the city. The overall goal of this work is to analyze the emergence and the evolution of the city of Floriano, focusing on the navigation on the Parnaíba River and the vegetable extraction occurred from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the first half of the twentieth century. For this purpose, there were outlined the follow specific goals: to describe the historical process of occupation and settlement of the territory of Piauí and its chronological connection to the genesis of the city of Floriano; characterize the contribution of the navigation on the Parnaíba River to the economic development of the city of Floriano; and identify the importance of the extraction of vegetables such as maniçoba (Manihot caerulescens pohl), carnaúba (Copernicia prunifera) and babaçú (Orbignya martíana) for the economic formation of the city of Floriano. It was evident that, during the time frame of the survey, ocurred the expansion of the city at the east side of the Parnaíba River, marked by the planning of the urban setting and defining the urban net arroud Floriano, evidenced by the recognition of the connections with other cities in Piauí and Maranhão. The research to be developed is exploratory and is within the field of environmental History, as it seeks to understand the links between forming space and social appropriation of nature. The methodological procedures involved bibliographical, documentary and cartographic materials, non-structured interviews with agents and producers of Floriano, besides photographic records during the field research, to collect data and obtain information for writing the thesis. However, during the development of the study, it was found that, on the time frame of the research and through the deepening of investigations, the city has developed due to factors such as the Parnaíba River navigation and the outbreak of vegetal extraction, highlighting the maniçoba (Manihot caerulescens pohl), the carnaúba (Copernicia prunifera) and the babaçú (Orbignya martíana), which boosted the dynamism of the urban space of Floriano. In this sense we can highlight the importance of natural resources abundance and the transforming action of the society, involving socio-environmental dynamics. To analyze the city requires dynamism and transformation, because it has a historical dimension that can be read through its own urban architecture that, as time goes by, acquires landscapes that are (re)produced in the course of the historical process and, thus, constitutes an objective reality to the conception of the urban space.