INTERPRETATION OF BRAZIL AND GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

Introduction: Interpretations from Brazil identify a thematic set of studies and scholars about the country as, territory, nation and formation and national identity, which emerged throughout the nineteenth century. Geography in its trajectory as a modern science has developed important interpretations of Brazil. Objective: The purpose of this article is to bring to the debate studies developed by Brazilian geographic science about Brazil, in order to demonstrate how this science studied the country, as a totality and, also, to reflect on the country from this optic. At the heart of the debate, we raise the question about the ability of Geography to offer interpretations of Brazil. How been, historically, associated with the Government, with intervention processes and territorial planning, and dedicated to the studies of the present time, would be the Geography able to offer interpretations of Brazil or would it be more structured to offer descriptions and explanations of the country or part of it? Methods: Based on surveys and bibliographic and documental analyses, to outline an answer, we discuss the expression "interpretations", and a set of works called "Interpretations of Brazil" and "Brazilian Social Thought". Starting from the contextualization of these ideas about Brazil, we first visited themes, debates and thinkers of the national project, and then we arrived at the interpretations and interpreters of the country. Finally, we focus on Brazilian geography and its country studies, presenting geographers who thought about Brazil, and their main interpretations of the country. Results: 17 scholars of Brazilian geography were highlighted, graduated before and after the constitution of the scientific field of Brazilian geography, with their respective legacies and most important contributions to the interpretation of the country and the intervention of its territory. Conclusion: Geography elaborated valuable studies and interpretations about the country, in essayistic and descriptive formats. After the second half of the 20th century, due to the expansion of scientific protocols, descriptive and explanatory interpretations became dominant in Brazil. This phenomenon can also be observed in other areas of the human sciences.