The authors analyze a variety of issues relative to the activities of trading caravans in the State of Minas Gerais over the 19th and 20th centuries. These caravans were a main attribute of this State's economy for a long time. A collection of foreign travelers' stories about the phenomenon of the nineteenth century drover is also highlighted, which helps in understanding certain social and cultural meanings concerning it. Through the memoirs of the old muleskinners from Alto Jequitinhonha, the authors also seek to demonstrate their remarkable longevity in Diamantina, a phenomenon that persisted until the 1950s.
Muleskinners and drovers; archaic transportation in Brazil's countryside; travelers from the 19th century; Ex-drovers' memoirs