Socio-historical representations of otherness in nineteenth-century chorographic writings

Abstract

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by a multiplication of writings of a 'historical' or 'historical-geographic' character in Brazil, the result of the expansion of public space, transformations in the social order and the emergence of new political subjects. This production was essentially marked by diversity, presented in different textual formats, such as memories, travel reports, chorographies, among others. This work aims to present some initial considerations regarding the representations of society and space in the province of Rio Grande de São Pedro in two of these works, the “Corografia Brazílica” writing by Aires de Casal, and the “Annaes da Província de São Pedro” writing by Fernandes Pinheiro, both published in the second decade of the 19th century. We tried to highlight the ways in which such works handled conceptions about a socio-spatial otherness, while trying to build a discourse of political legitimacy of the Portuguese Empire (and, later, Brazilian) on the territory presented in them. Our first impressions point out that the works studied were characterized by seeking to build an idea of territorial unity, contributing to a narrative that aimed to legitimize the possession of the territory of the Continente, and thus making a counterpoint both to the pretensions of the Spanish people and to the rights of the Amerindian populations that originally occupied the region. In addition, it was possible to identify a significant difference in the way in which their authors constructed representations in their speeches, ranging from an expression of familiarity when dealing with the description of space to a denial of otherness when trying to present the people who disputed their domain.