A POLÍTICA TERRITORIAL DAS VIAGENS CIENTÍFICAS LUSO-BRASILEIRAS NOS SERTÕES DA AMÉRICA PORTUGUESA NA CONSTRUÇÃO DA IDEIA DE NATUREZA (1778-1810)

Marcia Maria Costa Gomes; Bartolomeu Israel  Souza; José Otávio Aguiar

doi:10.22478/ufpb.1982-3878.2025v19n1.70654

Authors

Marcia Maria Costa Gomes Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Paraíba - Campus Campina Grande
Bartolomeu Israel Souza Universidade Federal da Paraíba
José Otávio Aguiar Universidade Federal de Campina Grande

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22478/ufpb.1982-3878.2025v19n1.70654

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore the history of the construction of the idea of Nature in the 18th century in light of the territorial policy of Luso-Brazilian scientific travel, implemented by the Lusitanian metropolis in Portuguese America. In this sense, we assume that the idea of Nature was forged by the territoriality of Portuguese-Brazilian scientific trips. Therefore, we raise the following questions: What material object can we extract the idea of Nature through the territorial policy of Portuguese-Brazilian scientific travel? Was the idea of Nature ratified by the territorial policy of Portuguese-Brazilian scientific trips? These questions guided our methodology through documentary and bibliographical research and during our investigative process, we selected two types of printed sources: Portuguese dictionaries from the 18th century and official letters from the Secretariat of State for the Navy and Overseas Dominions. From the bibliographic and documentary analysis, we saw that all the terms described in the administrative letters, especially those from Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, highlight an idea of Nature structured by the policy of the Overseas State Secretariat and ratified by traveling naturalists. Thus, the idea of Nature in Portuguese America was seen as an exploratory and utilitarian object with economic purposes, supported by science, especially by the Natural History statutes produced at the University of Coimbra and the Royal Academy of Lisbon, which were heavily dependent on the central power.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Marcia Maria Costa Gomes, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Paraíba - Campus Campina Grande

PhD in Geography in the area of Territory, Work and Environment from the Postgraduate Program in Geography/UFPB, 2021. Master's degree in Urban Geography from the Postgraduate Program in Geography/UFPB, 2006. Full Degree in Geography from the State University of Paraíba, 1996. Specialization in the area of Tourism from the Federal Technical School of Paraíba, 1999. Specialization in Environmental Analysis in Geography Teaching from the State University of Paraíba, 2000. She was a substitute teacher at the Federal Center for Technological Education of Paraíba - Campus Campina Grande (2007-2009) and at the State University of Paraíba - Campus Guarabira (2007-2009). Acting as an effective professor at the Federal Institute of Amazonas (2009). She is currently an effective professor, Exclusive Dedication, at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraíba-Campus / Campina Grande. She has training and experience in teaching at Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education levels. At IFPB / Campus Campina Grande, she worked in administrative management in the Research and Extension Coordination between 2011-2015 and as an Advisor at the Reference Center for Professional and Technological Education in Areia between June 2016 and March 2017. She worked in organizing events pedagogical/academic. She develops Scientific Initiation research in the area of historical geography with an environmental/urban theme and in Extension projects with an environmental/agroecological/urban and rural theme. She participated in the Editorial of Praxis Magazine and in the evaluation of scientific initiation projects and extension projects.

Bartolomeu Israel Souza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Graduated in Geography from the Federal University of Paraíba (1995), Master's degree in Development and Environment from the Federal University of Paraíba (1999), PhD in Geography from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2008) and Post-doctorate in Biogeography from the University of Seville - Spain (2013 and 2021). He is an associate professor at the Federal University of Paraíba, working in the Department of Geosciences. He is a researcher at CNPq. He teaches undergraduate courses in Geography, Biology and Environmental Engineering and postgraduate courses (Masters and Doctorate) in Geography and Regional Development and Environment Program (PRODEMA) / UFPB. He has experience in the area of Physical Geography and the Environment, working mainly on the following topics: desertification, soil management, plant x microclimate x soil relationship and Caatinga Biogeography.

José Otávio Aguiar, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande

Author and co-author of several books and articles, including the published biography of a Napoleonic officer in Brazil, the Frenchman Guido Thomaz Marlière (1767-1836), José Otávio Aguiar is a miner from Ubá. He holds a degree in History from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (1999) and a PhD in History and Political Cultures from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2003). He carried out Post-Doctoral research in the History Program at the Federal University of Pernambuco between 2009 and 2010, studying the botanical work of the Paraíba naturalist Manuel Arruda da Câmara (1752-1811). He is currently a Full Professor, with Exclusive Dedication at the Federal University of Campina Grande/PB, where he teaches at the Undergraduate level, as well as in the Postgraduate Programs in History (Master's) and Natural Resources (Interdisciplinary Master's and Doctorate). He has accumulated research and publication experience in the areas of Environmental History, History of Biology, Ethnobiology and Indigenous History, History of Imperial Brazil, History of Colonial Brazil, History of Contemporary Brazil and history of Japanese and Chinese religious and martial cultural receptions in Brazil. He was a Productivity Fellow and Researcher at CNPQ level 2, between the years 2012 and 2015. Between August 2015 and June 2016 he was a researcher and Post-Doctoral Fellow at CAPES, in a PROCAD agreement between PUC São Paulo, the UFCG and the Federal of Amazonas, studying environmental history, social and environmental movements, worlds of work and urban verticalization https://www.histprocad.pro.br/pesquisadores/. He was and still is a member of several editorial boards, such as that of Revista História Hoje, from ANPUH. He is deputy editor of Revista Minemosine and member of the National Advisory Council of Revista História, from Unesp in Assis-SP. Between April 2017 and July of the same year, he temporarily coordinated the UFCG Postgraduate Program in Natural Resources (Masters and Doctorate) located in the area of Environmental Sciences. He is a researcher on the national historical-documentary project, General Catalog of Documents on Indigenous History and Black Slavery in Brazil, financed by the Petrobrás Cultural Notice. He coordinates, together with professor Juciene Ricarte Apolinário, the Study Group on History, Environment and Ethnic Issues registered with the CNPQ since 2006. As a researcher and member of the Board of the Postgraduate Program in History, he signed, in 2017, an agreement of interinstitutional collaboration between UFCG and the Centro de História d Aquém e d Além-Mar (CHAM) Universidade Nova de Lisboa, PT, and also with the Universidade Pablo de Olavide, in Seville, Spain. Between January 2020 and May 2023 he coordinated the Postgraduate Program in History at UFCG. Between March 2020 and March 2023 he was a CNPQ Productivity Fellow, level II, Major Area of Environmental Sciences, subarea of History of Brazil. Social media administrator for the History, Environment and Ethnic Questions research group: https://www.instagram.com/gphistoriamioambiente/ - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092637836683