The roots and the Capital: human and more than human relationalities stemming from the presence of the eucalyptus monoculture in Vale do Jequitinhonha-MG

• Grant number: 23/04531-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Rural Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Joana Cabral de Oliveira
• Grantee: Sarina Vicente de Senne Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The region of Vale do Jequitinhonha, in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, has been home to a growing eucalyptus monoculture system in recent decades. This system expands over the land of the region at the service of specific industrial branches and, through the techniques employed in the industrial monoculture system and the introduction of eucalyptus trees, formerly exotic to the landscape of the region, generates a series of new relationships, effects and counter-effecfts, between the human and non-human beings (Latour, 2009) located there, thus transforming the social scenarios of the region, the local landscape and its resources in multiple ways. The goal of this research will be to trace a history of the presence of the eucalyptus trees in the region of Vale do Jequitinhonha, starting from a perspective that takes the eucalyptus as a central agent through the theoretical panorama offered by multispecies studies in contemporary anthropology (Kirksey; Helmreich, 2020), thus thinking about the multiple processes triggered in local life by this presence. This will be done through a bibliographical review of scientific works on the subject addressed in the databases of federal and state universities in the Southeast of Brazil and in academic journals, as well as through the analysis of official documents and journalistic records from different sources that offer ballasts of the history of the eucalyptus trees in the region.