Myth, Memory, and Power: the routes of mineral wealth in Western Minas Gerais (1709–1970)

Abstract

The old routes called “Gameleira e Três Irmãos” circulated during different occasions in the mining hinterlands of Minas Gerais between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It argues that these routes were not merely empirical tools to guide mineral prospecting but, above all, symbolic constructions that intertwined myth, collective memory, and political strategies of social legitimation. Through a critical examination of primary and secondary sources, the discussion explores how such routes reflect tensions between the view of sertanistas, the enlightenment rationalization of maps, and the instrumentalization of mining knowledge by colonial and imperial elites