Fragmentos de história da Geografia e outros recortes

Abstract

This thesis is a collection of records produced — some of which were published — over years of research in the history of geography. In this way, except for the first part, it can either be read from one end to the other, from start to finish, in increasing numerical order, or according to the reader's interest. One fact, however, is certain: each segment, although it maintains a recognizable thematic coherence and corresponds to part of a personal research trajectory, is a direct or indirect attempt to discuss the relevance of remembering the disciplinary past of geography. If the importance of this is recognized, what is worthy of remembrance — and, consequently, what is not at all? Why? Having identified the object of remembrance, how should one proceed with the remembrance? What sources, methods, and tools should be employed to bring past times to life? And, more critically, how should we write or tell the histories constructed in the process of research? In this thesis, I employ only a small sample of possibilities: 1) that of the reviewer, the judge, whose essential habit is to qualify the abundant bibliography, select what deserves to be read, and sometimes guide the reading itself; 2) that of the editorialist, an exceptional collector, who gathers fragments, assembling pieces to form an intelligible general picture of the bibliographic variety—in this regard, I draw on the experience that I lived in the editorial body of Terra Brasilis, Journal of the Brazilian Network for the History of Geography and Historical Geography; 3) that of the biographer, who has the limits of another person’s life as the unit of research and historical narrative; 4) that of the "columnist", the one who attempts more unexpected ways of telling stories, as is the case of those gathered below, which recount the formation of a research group and the organization of a scientific expedition. I am very clear about the fragmentary nature of this thesis. Each chapter could constitute another thesis. It was a conscious choice to assemble them in such a disposition of discursive genres and themes, as each type of text carries a particular way of recounting the past of our discipline