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INSTITirrEi OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGT — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



village on the way to Itii and the west. Another 

 went down the rim of the pl-analto from Sao Paulo 

 to Santos. A third extended northeastward from 

 Sao Paulo along the Paraiba Valley toward Rio 

 de Janeiro, with a branch into southern Minas 

 Gerais. A fourth went northward into Minas 

 Gerais by way of Sapucax and Camanducaia. A 

 fifth led northwestward through Campinas and 

 Franca into Goias and a sixth extended south and 

 west to Curitiba in Parana. 



The Estrada Imperial (Imperial Highway), 

 which linked Sao Paulo with Itii, is referred to 

 by present inhabitants as having once been "the 

 best road iri the State of Sao Paulo." It passed 

 along the ridge where the village cemetery is now 

 located. It is said to have always followed the 

 contours of the terrain, winding along the heights 

 and seeking to avoid the necessity for bridges. 

 Local residents still speak of a journey once made 

 by the Brazilian Emj^eror, Dom Pedro II, along 

 this road. 



A railroad extending west from Sao Paulo and 

 passing through Sao Jose dos Patos, 9 miles to 

 the south of the village, and Boa Vista, 11 miles 

 to the southwest, was inaugurated in 1875. A bus 

 line from Sao Paulo which passed through Boa 

 Vista was established in 1928; and in 1935 an- 

 other bus line which passed through Piracema, 7 

 miles to the northeast. The road linking these 

 towns with the village, however, long were little 

 more than trails for pack train and oxcart. Al- 

 though improved somewhat following the intro- 

 duction of the truck into the area about 20 years 

 ago, they still were barely passable to motor ve- 

 hicles until quite recently. The road to Paratinga, 

 which was the first and for a long time the most 

 important link of the comnumity with the outside 

 world, is now falling into disuse. 



Previous to the coming of the truck, the carry- 

 ing of produce out of the community and of such 

 necessities as salt and cloth into it, were by pack 

 train and oxcart. Three persons are still living in 

 the village who, when young men, were fropeiros, 

 or drivers of pack trains. The role of this special- 

 ist in Brazil, as a means not only of exchanging 

 goods but also of communication and news, has 

 not yet adequately been studied. Probably more 

 than any other agent, the tropeiro for centuries 

 helped to reduce isolation in the vast Brazilian 

 interior. 



On a fazenda which lies at the edge of the village 

 is the entrance to an old mine said to have been 

 worked for gold by the Jesuits in the eighteenth 

 century. Nearby is another mine where shafts 

 were sunk and ore was extracted from 1926 to 1933. 

 A small plant for sifting out ore concentrate, with 

 a capacity of 15 to 20 tons daily, was erected, and 

 the concentrate was shipped to the United States 

 for smelting.^^ High costs and a low return led to 

 the closing of the mine in 1933 and the subsequent 

 removal of the buildings. 



Still standing in the community is a house con- 

 structed in 1688. Its beams are of peroba and "as 

 firm today as when first laid," says a village car- 

 penter. The walls are of taipa, or earth tamped 

 down firm and solid. The floors, originally of 

 earth, are now of brick; the roof is of tile. 



Administratively, the community was a fre- 

 giiezia (parish) oi one mimicipio from 1653 to 1844 

 and of another from 1844 to 1874 ; a municipio in 

 its own right from 1874 to 1934,^' and a distrito of 

 a neighboring municipio since that date. It ap- 

 l^ears, however, that the actual area involved has 

 remained constant. 



In this area, then, the principal occurrences 

 in the past have been as follows: (a) Contact be- 

 tween indigenous Indians, migrant Europeans 

 (principally Portuguese), and imported Afri- 

 cans; (&) the development and eventual passing 

 of a system of slavery involving, first, Indians, 

 and, later, Africans; (c) extensive miscegenation 

 and the gradual amalgamation of these three basic 

 races into a new hybrid stock, in the course of 

 which the Indian, as a distinct biological gi'oup, 

 has disappeared and the Negro is apparently in 

 the process of disappearing; (d) the appearance 

 in comparatively recent years of a limited num- 

 ber of Europeans from countries other than Por- 

 tugal, especially Spain and Italy, and also of a 

 few Japanese, all of whom have either been assim- 

 ilated into the local society or have moved on else- 

 where; (e) the migration to the area of several 

 families from nearby communities; (/) an econ- 

 omy which originally was primarily extractive 

 and, later, predominantly agricultural, although 



=' A ton of ore is reported to have yielded 126 gm. of gold and 

 134 gm. of silver. Included also were : 



Lead 6.1 percent 



Copper .5 percent 



Zinc 3.8 percent 



^ The camara, or legislative body, was dissolved in 1890. 



