The Genesis of Pousos in Modern Brazil: considerations on (urban) forms sprung from waiting

Abstract

This article aims at questioning the theoretical foundations that guided the main research on pousos in Brazil, before suggesting further reading. We suggest the following definition of these paths’ sons: spatial forms sprung from waiting men on the move, and dedicated to home men in pause. We show that, far from being a Brazilian invention, the pousos fall within the long tradition of spatial forms dedicated to the transitional home for men on the move. Initially resulting in a bodily experience in the wilderness of the interior of the colony, pousos managed to establish themselves in the landscape as political structures indicating the extension of the Brazilian territory. Constituting a unique space-time, interpreting them requires articulate morphology and history, while guarding against the risk of evolutionism.

Keywords:
Brazil; pousos; waiting territories; urbanization; 17th-19th century