Drought in the sertão as a natural or social phenomenon

Establishing the Inspetoria Federal de Obras Contra as Secas, 1909-1923

Bibliographic Data

ID5261464
AuthorsEve Elizabeth Buckley
Year2010
Volume5
Issue2
Pages379-398
Publication date2010-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBoletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Ciências Humanas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1981-8122 • E-ISSN: 2178-2547
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/s1981-81222010000200011
OpenAlexW2045731913
SCIELO_PIDS1981-81222010000200011
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited20

This paper examines interpretations of the drought problem in Brazil's northeast sertão during the First Republic. It compares analysis of drought as primarily a natural or climatic phenomenon - embraced by civil engineers working for the Inspetoria [Federal] de Obras Contra as Secas (IFOCS) - with analyses emphasizing social and political conditions that made drought a crisis for the sertanejo poor. The latter are evident in the report of doctors Belisário Penna and Artur Neiva describing their expedition through the sertão sponsored by IFOCS in 1912. This comparison allows for consideration of the intersection between natural (geographic, climatic) and social (political, cultural) factors that produced the region's periodic crisis. The analysis is informed by the work of social scientists who highlight the multi-dimensional causes underlying natural disasters in politically marginal communities. Technocrats' faith in the context-independent utility of their expertise lay at the heart of IFOCS's ultimate failure to rescue sertanejos from famine, migration and poverty. Because the drought agency's technical personnel never had the political will or muscle to confront the social organization underlying the sertão's recurrent calamity, their ability to alleviate the human suffering that droughts precipitated was severely limited

Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economics · Environmental ethics · Famine · Geography · Natural (archaeology · Natural disaster · Natural phenomenon · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Social science · Sociology · Technocracy · Vagrancy · History of Medicine and Tropical Health · Law · Philosophy

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