The Social Sciences and possible horizons in the rural latifundia

Abstract

The article analyses the development of rural studies in Brazil as a subfield of the Social Sciences, arguing that its specificities must be understood within the institutional and social contexts in which it was produced. Demonstrating that scientific knowledge about rural Brazil cannot be dissociated from the historical structures of agrarian domination nor from the international circulation of the social sciences, the study examines the contributions of two theses: Antonio Candido’s thesis defended in the graduate program of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1954, and Afrânio Garcia Jr.’s thesis, defended in the Graduate Program of Social Anthropology at the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in 1983. Both works address, each in their own way, the challenging issue of the social reproduction of Brazilian peasants in areas marked either by the decline or the peak of plantation estate. Based on the analytical content of Os parceiros do Rio Bonito (1954) and O Sul: caminho do roçado (1989), we argue that these contributions remain fundamental as critical analytical references for interpreting continuities and transformations in current agrarian and urban areas reconfigurations, as well as for understanding new forms of social resistance emerging in territories once dominated by estates and sugar mills.