Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Inventorying Property in Brazilian Amazonia at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

2017; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1957-7745

Émilie Stoll, Luly Rodrigues da Cunha Fischer, Ricardo Theóphilo Folhes,

Urban Development and Societal Issues

At the turn of the twentieth century, Brazil became a federal republic and its states were endowed with legislation to regulate the privatization of land. From 1901 to 1909, in the state of Para (Amazonia), the governor Dr Augusto Montenegro instigated a census of the occupations and land titles issued under the previous regimes in order to set up a cadastre. This colossal undertaking led by the engineer Joao de Palma Muniz was published in the series of Land Registers. In the same period, from 1892 to 1910, the geometrician Paul Le Cointe undertook a cartographic and toponymic survey of the Lower Amazon on behalf of the government and in order to pursue his own scientific interests. The aim of this article is to explore from a juridical and ethno-historical point of view the stakes attached to the implementation of the land legislation in Para and the role of these two players, in the light of the ambitions and political, economic and scientific ideologies of the period.?