A LUMINOUS symbol IN THE WOODS OF MINAS GERAIS: FROM INDIGENOUS SETTLEMENT TO THE INDIGENOUS COLONY OF ITAMBACURI (1840-1910)

• Autor(a) principal: Chrysostomo, Maria Isabel de Jesus
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Santos, Higor Mozart Geraldo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Geographia (Niterói. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.uff.br/geographia/article/view/46623
• topic: Território; Região; Norte de Minas; Vale do Mucuri; Política Indigenista; Formação Territorial; Territory; Region; Northern Minas Gerais; Mucuri Valley; Indigenous Policy; Territoire; Région; nord du Minas Gerais; Vallée de Mucuri; Politique autochtone

The goal of this paper is to understand how Itambacuri – which is born as an indigenous settlement and then became an indigenous colony – is integrated, over the long term, with the desire to transform the Mucuri Valley into a useful and productive territory. From the management of several sources, it was pointed out how the imposition of new political and administrative statutes are part of this proposal of conformation and legitimation of the north and northwestern region of Minas Gerais, facing diffuse interests of the Minas Gerais elites located in the other regions that comprised the so-called “mosaico mineiro” (Minas Gerais mosaic). It was found that the constitution of the indigenous settlement /colony of Itambacuri is an epitome which, due to its results, can be admitted as a sort of crowning of a persistent territorial appetite that aimed not only to eliminate obstacles, but to re-signify them and integrate them as pillars in the construction of a civilized, mestizo and Christian Minas Gerais. In this sense, the colony has perfected some ongoing space processes: i.) the fixation of the indigenous (transmuting it into national); ii.) the settlement of the region as a new population; iii) the space regulation process, that is, the definition of a new land statute; iv.) the organization of rules for the production, circulation and dissemination of agricultural and manufactured ideas and products. However, the most important aspect of this socio-spatial process of regional change was linked to the institution of new and more elaborate forms of work and management of the once indigenous land. Keywords: Territory; Region; Northern Minas Gerais; Mucuri Valley; Indigenous Policy