The role of rural neighborhoods in the consolidation of Bragança Paulista territory

ABSTRACT This study seeks to discuss the formation of rural neighborhoods in the municipality of Bragança Paulista, state of São Paulo, Brazil, using, as one of the main explanatory elements for the advance of the territorial occupation of the parish/village, changes in the local economy. We have tried to reconstruct the process of territorial occupation of Bragança by following the distribution of sesmarias, the number of dwellings, the number of inhabitants, the geographical location and the development of the rural neighborhoods that formed there. The methodology adopted in this study is part of a set of studies on the urbanization process in Brazil that adopt the method of reading the landscape and material culture and seek to analyze the dynamics and logic of rooting the population in the territory. The analysis focused on the formation of rural neighborhoods in Bragança and its decisive influence on the consolidation process of the locality; with that, it was possible to perceive its role in the strengthening of a supply network of the capital city, São Paulo, and the state of Minas Gerais in the 18th and 19th centuries and the process of formation of the regional urban micro-network. We use cartographic documentation and diverse primary documentation, especially census documentation, with emphasis on nominative lists, handwritten documents, in principle annual, which contain the nominal list of inhabitants of different municipalities in the captaincy/province of São Paulo, where they are described by fires (household/productive units) some characteristics related to the residents, such as marital status, age, among others.

摘要
本研究旨在探讨巴西圣保罗州布拉干萨保利斯塔（Bragança Paulista）市镇乡村社区的形成过程，并将地方经济变迁作为解释该教区/村落领土扩张的核心要素之一。本研究通过追踪王室授地（sesmarias）的分布格局、住宅数量、人口规模、地理位置以及当地成型乡村社区的发展脉络，还原布拉干萨的领土扩张进程。
本研究采用的方法论隶属于巴西城市化进程研究谱系，此类研究以景观与物质文化解读为核心方法，旨在剖析人口在领土空间中扎根的动态机制与内在逻辑。本次分析聚焦布拉干萨乡村社区的形成过程及其对该地区整合进程的决定性影响；借此得以明晰其在18至19世纪，对强化圣保罗首府及米纳斯吉拉斯州物资供应网络、构建区域城市微网络进程中所发挥的关键作用。
本研究使用了制图档案与各类原始文献，其中尤以人口普查资料为核心支撑，重点涵盖以灶户（家庭/生产单元）为统计单位的记名名录，以及原则上按年度编制的手写档案。此类档案收录了圣保罗都督府/省境内各不同市镇居民的记名信息，并以灶户为统计维度记录了居民的婚姻状况、年龄等相关个人与家庭特征。