The ‘great transformation’ and the cultural biota of populations in movement

Colonial chroniclers, and later historians, noticed that since colonial times, the “Brazilian being” is a man on the move. They lived on the roads like ants, one said. A society in movement, said another. Until 1850, hundreds of thousands had been forced to cross the South Atlantic. Between the mid-19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, millions crossed the Atlantic; thousands migrated by force from the north to the southeast during the boom in coffee crops. Between 1930 and 1950, hundreds of thousands moved to Paraná. During the 1940s and 50s, thousands more were forced to walk from the northeast to the southeast due to the climate. Between 1960 and 1980, nearly 40 million Brazilians moved from the countryside to the cities and from small towns to large cities, from the south/southeast to the center-north and north. These are populations in movement through space. In each movement, these populations take with them their cultural biota and cause changes to the destination biome, changing its frontiers. The territory where were live today consists of layers upon layers of landscapes built by these populations in movement through space. Plants, animals, insects, germs, techniques and memories are documents of this process that originated our cities. A hundred years ago, it was wilderness; it has been transformed into the landscape of soybean/wheat/sugarcane. Coffee came from Ethiopia, soybeans from China, wheat from Asia, and sugarcane from India. The viruses to be combated were malaria, yellow fever, impaludism. They were stationary viruses. Nowadays, viruses literally fly along with populations. The field of history can no longer renounce the dialogue between space, populations and time. Los cronistas coloniales y, más tarde, los historiadores, notaron que desde el período colonial el “ser brasile o” equivalía a un hombre en desplazamiento. Vivían en los caminos como hormigas, afirmaba uno de ellos. Sociedad en movimiento, decía otro. Hasta 1850, centenas de miles habían sido forzados a cruzar el Atlántico Sur. Entre mediados del siglo XIX y las primeras décadas del XX, millones atravesaron el Océano. Miles fueron obligados a migrar del norte al sureste durante la expansión del cultivo de café. Entre 1930 y 1950, centenas de miles se desplazaron al Estado de Paraná. En las décadas de ’40 y ’50, nuevos grupos fueron empujados a caminar del nordeste al sureste como consecuencia del clima. Entre 1960 y 1980, cerca de 40 millones de brasile os migraron del campo a la ciudad, de las ciudades peque as a las grandes, del sursureste a la región