Ecologias em Terra Paulista (1894-1950): as relações entre o homem e o meio ambiente durante a expansão agrícola do Estado de São Paulo
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Data
2007-05-17
Autores
Mahl, Marcelo Lapuente [UNESP]
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Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Resumo
Ao longo do século XIX, ganhou projeção o processo de desbravamento do território paulista, impulsionado, principalmente, pelo surto cafeeiro. Regiões até então pouco exploradas, acabaram atraindo imensas levas populacionais, que buscavam perspectivas de enriquecimento e trabalho em novas terras, iniciando uma série de mudanças no mundo natural que, até então, havia se mantido relativamente intocado em grande parte do Estado. Dentre as várias regiões transformadas em zonas pioneiras, durante essa expansão econômica, merece destaque o Noroeste paulista, onde a cidade de São José do Rio Preto tornou-se, entre as décadas de 1910 e 1940, sede de uma das zonas de maior crescimento do Estado de São Paulo. Nesse movimento de conquista do interior de São Paulo, entre o final do século XIX e a primeira metade do século XX, percebe-se, por meio da análise de jornais e revistas que circulavam comumente nos maiores centros urbanos, a formação de uma contundente crítica ambiental, que começava a tentar compreender quais foram os efeitos dessa expansão econômica ao meio ambiente paulista. Esses discursos, mesmo partindo de realidades tão distintas - capital e interior - mostram uma grande similaridade, ao apresentarem fundamentalmente dois eixos centrais de discussão. De um lado, a valorização do progresso e da expansão econômica, que entendia a destruição do mundo natural como uma conseqüência necessária para o desenvolvimento, além de um símbolo de vitória do homem sobre o meio ambiente. De outro, discursos que criticavam os impactos ambientais desencadeados pela conquista do interior, além de defenderem a necessidade do surgimento de novas formas de interação, menos violentas e mais harmoniosas, entre a sociedade e a natureza. O presente trabalho analisa a origem e as tensões existentes entre essas duas concepções de ecologia, que emergiram naquele momento de crescimento da economia paulista.
All over the nineteenth century, the process of cleaning land in Paulista territory, stimulated especially by the sudden appearance of the coffee production, gained ground. Regions that were little exploited started to attract huge masses of the population that looked for enrichment and work in new lands. In consequence, a series of changes in the natural world, which had been relatively untouchable up to that moment, began in great part of the State. São José do Rio Preto was one among the various regions which were transformed into pioneering growing zones during the economic expansion, from the 1910s to the 1940s. With this movement of conquest in the interior of São Paulo, it was possible to observe, through the analysis of commonly circulated newspapers and magazines of the time, the formation of a consistent environmental criticism. Critics, then, started to understand the effects of such economic expansion on Paulista environment. Their discourses, even from distinct realities (from the capital city and from the interior) show a great similarity when they present two-center-lines of discussion: on the one hand, the appreciation of the progress and the economic expansion leading to the destruction of the natural world as a necessary development of the areas as well as the victory of the human being over the environment; on the other hand, the discourses that criticized the environmental impacts as a result of the conquest of the interior of the state, besides defending the necessity of the appearance of a less violent and more harmonious form of interaction between society and nature. The present work analyses the origin and tensions between these two conceptions of ecology that emerged in that moment of Paulista economic growing.
All over the nineteenth century, the process of cleaning land in Paulista territory, stimulated especially by the sudden appearance of the coffee production, gained ground. Regions that were little exploited started to attract huge masses of the population that looked for enrichment and work in new lands. In consequence, a series of changes in the natural world, which had been relatively untouchable up to that moment, began in great part of the State. São José do Rio Preto was one among the various regions which were transformed into pioneering growing zones during the economic expansion, from the 1910s to the 1940s. With this movement of conquest in the interior of São Paulo, it was possible to observe, through the analysis of commonly circulated newspapers and magazines of the time, the formation of a consistent environmental criticism. Critics, then, started to understand the effects of such economic expansion on Paulista environment. Their discourses, even from distinct realities (from the capital city and from the interior) show a great similarity when they present two-center-lines of discussion: on the one hand, the appreciation of the progress and the economic expansion leading to the destruction of the natural world as a necessary development of the areas as well as the victory of the human being over the environment; on the other hand, the discourses that criticized the environmental impacts as a result of the conquest of the interior of the state, besides defending the necessity of the appearance of a less violent and more harmonious form of interaction between society and nature. The present work analyses the origin and tensions between these two conceptions of ecology that emerged in that moment of Paulista economic growing.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Ecologia humana, Ecology, Economic expansion, Environmental history, Natural world, Preservation, Paulista territory
Como citar
MAHL, Marcelo Lapuente. Ecologias em Terra Paulista (1894-1950): as relações entre o homem e o meio ambiente durante a expansão agrícola do Estado de São Paulo. 2007. 215 f. Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências e Letras de Assis, 2007.