An analysis of droughts in the Jequitinhonha and Northern Minas Gerais, Brazil, based on the records of travel writers and memoirists from the 19th and 20th centuries

Abstract

TThis article examines the relationships between rural populations and droughts in the northern and northeastern regions of Minas Gerais, Brazil, based on records from travelers and chroniclers, as well as narratives by memoirists who wrote about these regions from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. It adopts bibliographic and documentary research procedures, analyzing accounts that focused on the manifestations of climate in everyday life, production, and space, describing their effects and the responses that grounded narratives later incorporated into discourses on droughts. By refining certain myths and establishing more solid recurrences, the article outlines a long-term overview that enables an understanding of this phenomenon, which is becoming increasingly frequent and prolonged as a consequence of climate change. The article presents a brief overview of droughts in Brazil, then introduces the methodology that guided the research framework and justified the spatiotemporal scope, the techniques employed, and the research sources. Finally, it analyzes records of droughts, their effects on societies, collective actions and omissions, highlighting prevailing interpretations of the phenomenon. It reveals that, since the early 19th century, droughts have been a subject of interest for rural populations, who developed techniques for coexistence; the public sector, however, has shown greater difficulty in understanding the complexity of the phenomenon and in anticipating its most severe consequences.