"Sertões", mobility and consumption tactics at "caatinga": material culture and "Sertanejo" practices in semiarid lands of northeastern Brazil during the 20th century

Abstract

The northeast of Brazil has been seen, since the late 19th century, both as a poor area, based on deterministic views supported by simplistic approaches in which desertification, drought, hunger and poverty are, invariably, found together, and as a diasporic region , an argument based on its arid environment characteristics (the "caatinga" and the semiarid lands), known by episodes of drought. These statements have forged a powerful discourse in which the so-called "sertão" is presented as homogeneous, static and isolated. This project aims to objective develop a critical thesis to such discourse starting from the material culture analysis of historical archaeological sites of Pernambuco (from Serra Talhada to Trindade), Piauí (from Eliseu Martins to Trindade) and Ceará States (from Missão Velha to Quixadá). It intends to defend the hypothesis that consumption practices and mobility of the "sertanejo" people, at the semiarid Northeast, are indicative of intense dynamism that characterizes the region, dialogical to the "caatinga" ecosystem and the impacts of globalization on the everyday life of its inhabitants throughout the 20th century. The proposal will investigate regional landscape and material culture that belongs to household's discard refuses. The research bases itself in a interdisciplinary approach as a way to inputs highlights to the understanding of the phenomenon, relating the Archaeology of the Contemporary Past to sociological, ecological, historical and anthropological perspectives.