Turf in Campinas: urban life and new relations with nature (end of the 19th century, first decades of the 20th)

• Grant number: 14/19304-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2015
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Carmen Lucia Soares
• Grantee: Nara Romero Montenegro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação Física (FEF). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Turf was a common corporal practice in many Brazilian cities especially in the turn of the 19th century. In the city of Campinas a few horse-racings already happened around the 1870s and the first hippodrome was built a few decades later, in the Bonfim district. This research aims at analyzing the context of turf's outbreak and early developments in the city of Campinas during this, emphasizing the possible social representations originated from this practice. The hippodrome's environment was the place where the aristocracy wanted to assert itself and to preserve; various expressions and feelings from distinct social levels could be confronted in this place where they would recognize each other in their well limited and predetermined spaces. Based on the considerations proposed by Keith Thomas (1998) we also aim at thinking over a new conception of nature emerging on this period, which allowed the birth of this practice that has an animal - a horse - as central element for its development. In the practice of turf the horse is not only an instrument for transportation or work, but a central element of a new amusement practice, supported by agrarian elite. Thus it seems important to think over the conceptions of nature that legitimate this emergent practice in the place and time hereby determined.