Semiárido, seca e “gerais” do Norte de Minas: uma revisão da bibliografia sobre o Alto-Médio São Francisco

Abstract

This article aims to describe, through a literature review, the characteristics and uniqueness of the region known as "gerais", polarized by the municipality of Januária, located on the left bank of the Upper Middle São Francisco River, in the semiarid of Minas Gerais. This text first characterizes the Brazilian semi-arid region and the conflicts related to land concentration,then describes the gerais and specified this agri-environment - the occupation process, agrarian regimes, coexistence with the drought. The article analyzes how this scenario was modified from the 1970s onwards with land appropriation and the modernization of agriculture, affecting the relationship between rural families and the ecosystem, especially affecting access to water. As a result, it was noticed that the production conditions of rural families, who lived intense and fluid dynamics of relationship with nature, were transformed. They were not only farmers in the forest, gerais, vazanteiros or ranchers; on the contrary, they combined techniques adapted to produce food based on the use of a wide range of knowledge of nature's resources.