Territory, labor, and society

the Campos Gerais in Saint-Hilaire’s travel accounts (1820)

Abstract

This article examines the travel narratives of Auguste de Saint-Hilaire concerning his passage through the Campos Gerais region in 1820, considering them as a key source for understanding representations of territory, labor, and social organization in nineteenth-century Brazil. Through a critical reading of the traveler’s account, the study analyzes the discursive construction of landscape, the moral judgments associated with rural labor practices, and the social hierarchies observed in the countryside, situating these descriptions within the asymmetrical encounters between a European observer and local societies. Engaging with theoretical perspectives from cultural history and travel writing studies, the article argues that Saint-Hilaire’s narratives do not merely record the reality of the Campos Gerais, but actively produce historical meanings that articulate nature, labor, and society according to scientific categories and values characteristic of the early nineteenth century.