NARRATIVES OF NORTHERN SERTÕES URBANIZATION

ABSTRACT The scant cartographic information on the processes of occupation and transformation of the sertões of the captaincies (royal land grants) of the North presents challenges to the researchers. On the other hand, the abundant documentation written by Royal officers (civil and ecclesiastical) shows the sertão hidden in images, structured by a hierarchical network of settlements formed by towns, villages, parishes, julgados (legal/administrative areas) and filial chapels. This essay intends to represent the sertões outside of the "cartographic scene" created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, showing dynamic territories transformed into landscapes. Political and cultural relations will be treated as foundational to the formation of macro-landscapes shaped in space over the long term. The methodology interweaves text (hermeneutics) and image (representation) to think with the urbanization processes emanated by the Portuguese Crown or those operating in the inhabitants' daily life. Georeferencing was also used, in order to place the settlements in the territory and interpret the reason for their geographical position in the social-political context in which they were inserted.

摘要 目前针对北部王室土地授予制都督辖区（captaincies，王室土地授予）辖下的塞唐荒原（sertões）的占领与改造进程，现存制图资料极为匮乏，这为相关研究者带来了显著研究挑战。与之相对，王室文职与教会神职人员留下的大量文献资料，却通过影像记录下了此前鲜为人知的塞唐荒原：其空间格局由城镇、村落、堂区、尤尔加多（julgados，司法/行政区域）以及附属礼拜堂构成的层级化定居点网络所塑造。本研究旨在还原17至18世纪"cartographic scene"之外的塞唐荒原，展现这片被改造为人文景观的动态疆域。研究将政治与文化关系视为长期空间塑造下宏观人文景观形成的核心基础。本研究的方法论融合了文本诠释学（hermeneutics）与图像再现（representation）路径，以此探讨葡萄牙王室主导的城市化进程，以及当地居民日常生活中自发形成的城市化活动。此外，本研究还采用了地理配准（georeferencing）技术，以明确各定居点的空间位置，并结合其所处的社会政治语境，解读此类定居点选址的内在逻辑。