Entre rios e ruas: água, açude e tragédia em uma cidade do agreste potiguar (Santa Cruz, 1º de abril de 1981)

On the evening of April 1, 1981, the city of Santa Cruz was taken by a flood that destroyed the spillway weir Santa Cruz and much of the city, causing the population of the lower areas to abandon their homes. Residences and closest to the dam, the river and the creek Trairi Sin streets were totally affected, and many of the houses and public buildings completely destroyed. Located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the city of Santa Cruz is marked by a very hot climate and semi-arid. With an average normal rainfall of 498.7 mm per year, the city is affected by drought since the beginning of its foundation, around the year 1831. For its development had continued, it was necessary that the population actualize various environmental interventions Nature, especially as regards the storage and distribution of water. Considering the process of occupying the space in question, as well as the relationships that human groups have with the natural environment, we aim to analyze how human interventions affect the environment around them, modifying it to meet their needs and interests. Thus, we intend to understand how media coverage enabled the construction of a framework of tragedy. We intend to observe how the occupation of Santa Cruz led to the modification of their surroundings, trying to discuss the effects of human intervention on natural disasters. Among the research sources include newspapers A República, Diário de Natal, Tribuna do Norte, O Poti and Folha de São Paulo, as well as interviews with the then mayor of Santa Cruz, Hildebrando Teixeira de Souza, and with the couple José Henrique de Pontes and Severina Aguida de Pontes, whose house was hit by the flood. We will also take messages from the state government, the minutes of the city council of Santa Cruz and reports produced by DNOCS on the construction of the weir and its survey after the flood.

"Em cada esquina um poeta, em cada rua um jornal": a vida intelectual natalense (1889-1930)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES

(A)cerca do espaço: a nacionalização da questão agrária pelo MST (1984-2002)

This work has as objective to analyze the social movement called Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra and their relation to land reform from the idea of nation. In the decade of its emergence, 1980, Brazilian nationalism was deeply tied to aspirations for democracy and this consisted of a kind of political language of the period that included not only the MST, but also conservative sectors of Brazilian politics. The MST then develop a way to realize their different social function of the movements that preceded it as the Ligas Camponesas, incorporating the element of the nation as political capital to strengthen their practice. This relationship will be studied from a debate on contemporary Marxism and its key concepts.

Ativismo Vegano em Natal: uma etnografia de mobilização política, alimentação ética e identidades

This research has vegan groups in the city of Natal-RN as interlocutors, although I also report to other research contexts, such as those located in the cities of Recife (Pernambuco State) and Campina Grande (Paraíba State). Moved by ethical principles based on animal rights, vegans refuse to consume any product with animal origin. To the extent that consumption habits can be considered powerful elements of identification, the relationship between consumption, food, identity, and politics is an important analytical key in the development of this work. As my main theoretical question, I follow the ways by which the vegan discourse (of abolitionist character) takes shape and materializes into actions, demonstrations and political mobilization. Therefore, I aim to present an ethnography of activities performed collectively by these individuals, such as those of a more ludic character (picnics, etc.) as well as those more politically oriented, especially protests and demonstrations in public places.

O jornal Tribuna do Norte e a publicidade do crime na esfera pública (1950-1970)

The study aims to analyze the crime of the advertising process in the post-World War II period in Brazil, considering the Tribuna do Norte newspaper as one of the main vectors of this production in the public sphere of Rio Grande do Norte. The theoretical discussion is based on sociologists Jürgen Habermas and John Thompson, among others, that bring ideas about the relationship between the press and the public space. Our research in the journal is during the period from 1950, the year of the creation of this press, to 1970, in the context of AI-5 law. This period is considered the consolidation of this periodic in the populist context of Aluízio Alves, as well as the articulation with political changes after and before military coup in 1964. The publicity of crime is showed as a historical building, involving journalistic procedures, subjects and spaces. The publicity is related to commercial and political questions when some facts turned into a public event. In this sense, this research focuses on the publicity in its political dimensions. Related to the methodology, it is an empirical and qualitative study, based on literature, with a descriptive and interpretative approach, according to historian Tânia de Luca. The corpus of analyze is composed by notes, titles, news, reports, advertisements, image texts, among another textual genres. The chapters present a study about the building and changes of the populist journalism; the publicity of crime in democratic times; besides the military coup in 1964 and the changes of publicity of crime. The results of analyzes show that Tribuna do Norte, although has adopted more liberal pattern from North American presses, during the analyzed period has yet conservative and authoritative patterns from old potiguar presses. In this period, the political practice, in spite of diverse commercial interests, was an important element in the trajectory of this ambiguous journalism that has influencing, in a significant way, the production of news of crime.

Entre a cruz e a espada, a foice e o martelo: a representação do anticomunismo no Rio Grande do Norte

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the propagation of an anticommunism movement in Rio Grande do Norte Estate, Brazil, in a process that started on the first decades of the twentieth century and shows reflections until today. Firstly, we introduce the operation promoted by the catholic oriented newspaper A Ordem. Through the analysis of publications from 1935 to 1945, we observe its role in an image campaign of the “Communist Conspiracy” event, in an attempt to legitimate the power of Right wing groups, specially the Catholic Church and the Military Police. The newspapers discourse is analyzed in serial, quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Secondly, we search to understand the space dynamic of the anticommunism discourse thought the creation of evocation and representation spaces that ended up becoming memory places. Our considerations are based on the concept of representation by Roger Chartier, observing the way communism is represented by A Ordem, as well as the spatial category used to reactivate the anticommunist memory and represent it. We analyze the interests that are served by the construction of the monuments, the Oral History, as well as the relation between the local communities with them. Thirdly, we establish a parallel with many authors, in an approach that gathers Cultural and Social elements and Political History, in order to find explanations for the articulation of these discourses.

Colônia agrícola Sinimbú: entre a regularidade do espaço projetado e os violentos confrontos do espaço vivido (Rio Grande do Norte, 1850-1880)

In 1878, at the province of Rio Grande do Norte, between Ceará-Mirim and Extremoz, was founded the Agricultural Colony of Sinimbú. On this location, about 6,600 freed men and women had gathered. They were not only fleeing from the terrible 1877 drought but also encouraged by the promise of accessing basic necessities, i.e. housing and medical assistance, upon work, as required by local and central representatives of power. However, the migrants faced otherwise reality, since conditions within the agricultural facility were of shortage and violence, as denounced on the presidential reports of that time. This work aims at analyzing the conflicts that took place at the Sinimbú Colony, while it seeks to emphasize how the tensions and interests of both local elite and central government representatives relate to the opening and closure of this space, on a context where the debate on the control over freed poor workers was on the rise. Thus, we intend to demonstrate that on the one hand, institutionalized places provided the native freed a sense of work guided by the discipline of the body, control of time and arrangement of space. On the other hand, unlike forms of resistance enacted by freed working men and women undergoing the rearranging process of labor world cannot be disregarded.

Terra de charneca erma e de saudade: a construção simbólica do Alentejo português na obra de Florbela Espanca (1916-1930)

In this work, we investigate the symbolic construction of a particular spatiality, starting from the theoretical assumption that spaces are subjective constructions guided by different cultures, feelings and rationales, but mostly spaces are human constructs driven by social relations, as a result of the material investment and symbol that reflects the needs of a particular society at a given time of historical development. Accordingly, we analyze the construction and symbolic imagery of the central region of Portugal, the Alentejo, from the literary production (1916 – 1930) the English poet Florbela Espanca D'Alma Conception Espanca. Thus, we propose to analyze the florbelian work not only from its internal relations, but also external, emphasizing the link between history, space and literature. Thus, we propose to inquire about the symbolic dimension – the meanings of images and representations – which prompted one of the most controversial Portuguese poets of the early twentieth to look into the poetic construction of space Alentejo century, questioning not only the senses brokered by speech literary Florbela Espanca to invent your Alentejo, adorned with memories, pain and longing, but investigate how the socio-cultural environment influenced your work, in your life and ways to feel and live the Alentejo. To better understand how the poet means the Alentejo spatiality, throughout this work we question three categories of space in the work of Florbela Espanca: the region, the countryside and the landscape of the Alentejo. Thus, this research falls within the field of cultural history in the medical we will work with the entire literary output Florbela Espanca, letters, diaries, photos and biographical and literary criticism, by establishing the time frame of 1916 – beginning of intellectual activity Florbela Spank – the 1930 – publication of Blossom Heath (posthumous) and the suicide of the poet. Therefore, a constant symbolic exercise of words crossed by more subjective feelings of the subject, all the time our work will be guided by the question of what would be the Alentejo for the poet, who senses and meanings across this spatiality that marked so sovereignly happiest memories and sad life Florbela Espanca.

"Porta do Céu": o processo de cristianização da Freguesia de Nossa Senhora da Apresentação (1681-1714)

This study aims to analyze the process of Christianization space in the different areas of the Parish of Our lady of Presentation between 1681 and 1714. To accomplish this goal, the main primary sources researched was the parish records of baptism. Thus, areas of the parish were designed based on two fundamental concepts: Christianization of the locations (and souls), based on the study of Claudia Damasceno, who worked with the notion of ecclesiastical circumscription, adapted for the case of Parish of Our lady of Presentation, and the concept of local experimentation, by Yi-Fu Tuan. Christianization the areas was the process of transformation of spatial logic, found previously by the Portuguese, by overlapping the ecclesiastical logic over Indigenous perception, through buildings construction, to initiate people to Catholicism. The experiment, in turn, would be made by the local residents studied and by religious themselves, making these areas, in places, in the sense of achieving new local meanings. It was verified, therefore, that Parish of Our lady of Presentation had at least three distinct places, the City of Natal, the villages around and the parish missions. Then, the focus of this thesis is to analyze how settlers used these different places as religious meanings.

Onde fica o sertão rompem-se as águas: processo de territorialização da ribeira do Apodi-Mossoró (1676-1725)

The Portuguese territorial process of the captaincy of Rio Grande was initiated in1598 with the conquest of the Potengi River bar by Mascarenhas Homem. This process lasted until 1633, when it was interrupted by the arrival of the Dutch, and resumed only in 1654. From this year on, the occupation of unknown lands of the captaincy was encouraged, supporting the advancement towards conquering the backlands, breaking the divisive boundaries with the captaincy of Siará Grande so far known: the Assú riverside. This breakthrough resulted in confrontations with the inhabitants of these lands, known as tapuias, leading to outbreak of several conflicts that composed the Barbarians War. The main stage of such events in Rio Grande, between the years 1687 and 1720, was precisely the Assú riverside, one of the spaces to be investigated by this research. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the advance of the conquerors in Rio Grande, contributing to the territorial process, which resulted in the emergence of a new border between Rio Grande and Siará Grande: the Apodi-Mossoró river. For this purpose, it was used sources produced between the years 1659 and 1725, as the settlement letters, royal charters, correspondence between the City Council of Natal, captains of Rio Grande and the government of Pernambuco and also the general government, as well as the documents related to the militia composed mainly by Paulistas who struggled in the captaincy.

A ribeira da discórdia: terras, homens e relações de poder na territorialização do Assu colonial (1680-1720)

The internalization process of the Portuguese possession in Northern Captaincies - after the Dutch eviction and the development of activities related to livestock in the backlands (Sertão) – expanded the Portuguese territory in America. This process resulted in the advancement of Portuguese conquest over the region and conflicts involving agents of colonization and indigenous groups who inhabited that space, as well as conflicts of interest of captaincy’s major social groups and the defense policies of the Portuguese territory possession. Among the rivers which run through Rio Grande captaincy’s territory, the Açu was the one that aroused conquerors and colonizers of the back lands interest, making that spatiality an area where interest and power exercises converged and generated discord. This research aims to analyze the territorial process of Assu backlands, from the pioneers, conquerors and colonizers action over the space studied, during the event known as the War of the Barbarians in Assu, conflict that ensured the integration of the area the territory and the wishes of the Portuguese crown. Thus, it will be taken as objects of study social phenomena that characterized Assu’s riverside - at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century, in a cutout that extends from 1680 to 1720 - as an area of conflicts of interest, noticeable for analysis from period documents such as records of land grants concessions, correspondence between colonial and kingdom authorities, documents from the exercise of administration of Portuguese America and legislation.

A ribeira da discórdia: terras, homens e relações de poder na territorialização do Assu colonial (1680-1720)

The internalization process of the Portuguese possession in Northern Captaincies - after the Dutch eviction and the development of activities related to livestock in the backlands (Sertão) – expanded the Portuguese territory in America. This process resulted in the advancement of Portuguese conquest over the region and conflicts involving agents of colonization and indigenous groups who inhabited that space, as well as conflicts of interest of captaincy’s major social groups and the defense policies of the Portuguese territory possession. Among the rivers which run through Rio Grande captaincy’s territory, the Açu was the one that aroused conquerors and colonizers of the back lands interest, making that spatiality an area where interest and power exercises converged and generated discord. This research aims to analyze the territorial process of Assu backlands, from the pioneers, conquerors and colonizers action over the space studied, during the event known as the War of the Barbarians in Assu, conflict that ensured the integration of the area the territory and the wishes of the Portuguese crown. Thus, it will be taken as objects of study social phenomena that characterized Assu’s riverside - at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century, in a cutout that extends from 1680 to 1720 - as an area of conflicts of interest, noticeable for analysis from period documents such as records of land grants concessions, correspondence between colonial and kingdom authorities, documents from the exercise of administration of Portuguese America and legislation.

"Do alto da colina" - a província do Rio Grande do Norte, o comércio, os rios Potengi e Jundiaí e o complexo comercial do Guarapes 1850 - 1900

The commercial complex Guarapes was during the second half of the nineteenth century most commercial street of Rio Grande do Norte province. In that time frame, you can see its flourishing as one of the central places of trade in the province in 1850, and its subsequent abandonment in 1900. This thesis aims to investigate, in its first part, the paths that help to understand, as the context of the expansion of global markets in the second half of the nineteenth century enabled the conditions for the emergence of the commercial complex. However, trade relations established in this province through the commercial complex, even participating in this global environment, reserved particular characteristics in their social and trade relations, as if dealing with a peripheral province, we look at the uniqueness of the relationship occurred in this space. In the second part, we seek to understand the importance that the rivers Potengi and Jundiaí had to install the commercial complex Guarapes in the second half of the nineteenth century. As the geographical position in relation to rivers, enabled this space became flow zone and confluence of goods distributed to the various parts of the interior of the province. We also monitor the process that made these rivers leave the role of mobility and transport relations in this space, giving way the railways and roads shooting. In the third part, we seek to understand the commercial complex Guarapes in focus. Analyzing their spatial distribution on the landscape, and how the spatial organization held at the same time traces of the Brazilian patriarchy exposed by Gilberto Freyre, but also "modern" features, due to the increase of a new culture inserted material in the province. We also seek to understand elements of material culture that was the environment of the complex, and how these materials are important sources for understanding this society under study. We treat from the biggest to the smallest fragments without hierarchize them. Understanding that, the study associated the written sources and materials provide a gain in understanding of everyday these people who lived in that area of the complex in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Do ancoradouro à sala de espera: as obras de melhoramento do porto e a construção de uma Natal moderna (1893-1913)

Through the nineteenth century, it was constant in the discourse of the local norte-rio-grandenses (Natal city, Brazil) administrators, the appeal for subsidy to the central government for the works of the port of Natal upgrade. The port in the capital, the main route of the Rio Grande do Norte communication, because of the limitations attached to it, as the dunes surrounding the city spreading sand in the riverbed, and several reefs located along the coast, did not allow the entry in his berth larger ships. These difficulties brought major problems the province, who could not hold the flow of production coming from the inside, resulting in the north of Rio Grande political scene, questioning the centrality of Christmas position in the province. Only Republican scheme had been approved credit by the federal government for the improvement works of the port. The port became the Republican political discourse Potiguar one of the main promises to bring "progress" the Potiguar land, being placed as a central issue of which depend on the "future" of the state. The objective of this study is to analyse the emergence of a new port concept in speeches and interventions of the local ruling groups in the early twentieth century. We analyse the emergence of a modern notion of port, marked by the organizing effort, rationalization and regulation of port activities by the state, and the new relationship assumed by the harbour front to the city resulting from this new perception. The port has become for local leaders to groups of capital "waiting room", requiring change of the composition of urban space for integrating the port to the city. The Port of Natal became endowed with a pedagogical function, incorporating the urban fabric, codes, values and practices considered by local managers as modern and civilized. This new city space, considered a "waiting room", caused conflicts between the local ruling groups and influential figures in the Potiguar political field, which sought to encourage with the process of organizing the harbour front undesirable regarded figures in the city views as an impediment to the image of progress and modernity that the dominant groups intended to expose the port.

"Ombro a ombro com os mais fracos": a inserção de João Café Filho nos espaços do trabalhador na cidade do Natal 1922 - 1937

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how João Café Filho constituted a discourse of advocate of the labor movement and workers in different sociability spaces. It is intended to understand, on one hand, how political relations were established between different categories of workers and the ‘middle classes’ and, on the other hand, how places were instituted to house the meeting of these relations. It a ims to understand the insertion of Café Filho in union activities in the urban world. It demonstrates specificities of the political culture in Natal emphasizing the dispute between a city politically ruled by a still reigning rural paternalistic mentality and the rise of a new way to experience the urban conflicts which appeared. Temporally, the work is delimited between 1922 (proclaimed by Café Filho himself as the initial period of his political action) and 1937 (when he broke up with Vargas and went into exile in Argentina). The research was constituted by three main document types: several published newspapers between the decades of 1920 and 1930 in the cities of Natal, Recife, São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro; the autobiographical memoirs written by Café Filho himself and memoirs of other people who lived in his time. The main pillars that have supported the work were: the concepts of society and individuals (ELIAS, 1994; 1995), political cultures (BERSTEIN, 1998) and theater of the memory (GOMES, 2004); the sociability spaces category (CERTEAU, 1994; MALATIAN, 2001; RIOX, 1996); the biography notion (DOSSE, 2009; LORIGA, 2011). We demonstrated that Café Filho acted in some sociability spaces as: the Jornal do Norte, the Federação Regional do Trabalho and the Partido Democrático Nacional. In such spaces, Café Filho, gradually, become an important leader of workers and, at the same time, linked to national entities led to the opposition that fight against the power established in the Brazilian First Republic. In Café Filho’s interpretation, workers were individuals who needed to fight against the political structures prevailing at that time because the poor living conditions and the low representativeness of this group were caused by the way the political system in the First Republic was structured. After the 1930 Movement, the 3 de Outubro Club, the Jornal and the Labor Federation of Natal were constituted in spaces where the cafeista critical discourse about the government was changed: workers should follow the official syndicalism and defend the 1930 Movement which put Vargas in the presidency of the Republic.