Caminhos percorridos pela Casa dos Papagaios: territorialidade e relações de poder em Aiuruoca através das interações com a natureza (Minas Gerais - Século XVIII)

Abstract

Natural elements, resilient over time, are constantly reinterpreted by social dynamics and power relations. Witnesses to an ever-changing landscape, they carry the marks of temporalities, pathways, permanence, violence, and historical silences. This dissertation seeks to understand historical, political, economic, and social dynamics through the relationships between humans and nature in the context of the formation and consolidation of the Freguesia de Aiuruoca, an important center of power located in the south of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais, in the Rio Grande Basin, and the branches of the Serra da Mantiqueira. This research explores from the earliest incursions that recorded the name of the Serra da Juruoca to the analyses of the territorial dimension permeated by political and religious connections. The entries into the mining hinterlands resulted in the strategic selection of settlement sites, where colonizers appropriated lands and established pathways. These expeditions also led to the reinterpretation of places and toponyms. Territorial delimitation, marked by the construction of chapels and other structures, defined and consolidated colonial control over the occupied areas. Narrative and cartographic productions document transformations. By exploring power interactions with the surrounding nature, it is revealed how these connections shaped the identity and socioeconomic structure of the locality, highlighting the way in which the territory and its natural resources influenced and were influenced by human activities, through transformations and continuities