|
|
|
JOSÉ LUIZ DE ANDRADE FRANCO AND JOSÉ AUGUSTO DRUMMOND
wilderness and the
BRAZILIAN MIND (I): NATION AND NATURE IN BRAZIL FROM THE 1920S TO THE 1940S
ABSTRACT
This text examines selected writings produced by four leading Brazilian conservation scientists active in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Alberto José Sampaio (1881–1946), Armando Magalhães Corrêa (1889–1944), Cândido de Mello Leitão (1886–1948), and Frederico Carlos Hoehne (1882–1959) were prominent members of a "second generation" of Brazilian conservationists. Although they died on the average about sixty years ago, they have receded from memory and their publications have become all but inaccessible. We argue that their ideas, research, and institution-building efforts were highly pertinent and influential in their own time and remain valuable today as building blocks of Brazilian conservation awareness and policies. This article brings together biographical and professional data about each author and examines the texts that best illustrate their range of concerns, their sources, and their priorities in the field of nature conservation.
| THE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE refers to Roderick Nash's classic Wilderness and the American Mind.1 This implies both an homage to Nash and our goal of contributing to the understanding of the concepts and the sensibility of a few Brazilian scientists who, in their own way, expressed an early and deep concern with the conservation of "wild" nature in Brazil. It is fair to admit, however, that the Portuguese language (spoken in Brazil) has no word that conveys the meaning of wilderness. Sertão is the one that comes closest. It denotes various and not mutually consistent perceptions of places and conditions that are paradise, hell, or purgatory. |
1
|
|
In this sense, the word expresses tensions also denoted by the word wilderness. Sertão, used commonly since early colonial times by Portuguese explorers, clergy, and administrators, designated far away and isolated places, sometimes uncharted or savage, but sometimes inhabited, even if sparsely, in contrast with cities or densely settled rural areas (located mostly along Brazil's Atlantic coastline). In its negative meaning, sertão meant a place of violence, lawlessness, backwardness, lack of security, a desolate outback. The positive meaning conveyed peace of mind, simple habits, beauty, and untouched nature. These extremes evolved into other polar pairs that crept even into academic analyses—coast/interior, modern/archaic, "the two Brazils", civilized/uncivilized, and progress/stagnation. However wilderness and sertão have in common the perception of the existence of "new lands" suitable to be occupied, areas in which the relation of humans and nature is different from the same relation in settled areas.2 |
2
|
|
The Brazilian conservationists examined here worked mostly with the positive meaning of sertão, even when they did not use the word. They were concerned with the vast sections of the Brazilian territory where European presence was sparse and in which the inhabitants lacked basic governmental services and protection. They felt the national state should intervene in the sertão in order to help build a harmonious relationship between Brazilians and nature, and that this relationship would add a special character to the Brazilian national identity. |
3
|
|
This article discusses the ideas and proposals of four Brazilian scientists—Alberto José Sampaio (1881–1946), Armando Magalhães Corrêa (1889–1944), Cândido de Mello Leitão (1886–1948), and Frederico Carlos Hoehne (1882–1959)—local forerunners in the matter of nature protection. It is important and even urgent to examine their writings. Their work and activism, besides being influential in the realm of Brazilian science and in conservation policy, made them prominent members of a second generation of conservation-minded Brazilians, active roughly from the 1920s to the 1980s. |
. . . |
There are about 12817 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
