The toponimyc venture from Northern “Sertões” and State of Maranhão: landscape, settlement and diversity

ABSTRACT

The article proposes to reconstruct the past landscapes of the sertões of the captaincies of the north and of the state of Maranhão (captaincies of Piauí and Maranhão), between the 16th and 19th centuries, based on the comparison of the related toponymy in primary cartographic and manuscript sources. By studying the toponyms it is possible to obtain and check that the sertões were not limited to images of emptiness and homogeneity. On the contrary, they were formed by landscapes, spaces and territories built equally by a diverse society of Indians, Africans and Europeans. Initially, it reflects on the archaeological role of toponymy to decipher the economies hidden in words, but which built the territories of the sertões. Light is shed on places located in areas where the “salt of the earth” is produced, a commodity that mainly connected the sertões of the São Francisco River with the neighboring captaincies. Next, it is verified how the lexicon of indigenous origin was essential to the population and knowledge of the sertões. As a final consideration, there is the toponymic adventure inserted in a game of scales, taking, in the urban scope, the names of the streets of the city of Oeiras do Piauí as a case study. The method makes use of flexible geographical scales that celebrate experiences and landscapes from intra-urban to macro-scale.

KEYWORDS:
Archaeology; Landscape; Piauí; Sertões; Salt; Toponym