“Ervateiros” settlers: environmental history and immigration in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The European immigrants that had colonized the south of Brazil have devoted themselves, mostly, to the agriculture and small livestock, but also on a smaller scale, to the extraction of natural assets. This research, which is part of a broader research, used the approach of Environmental History and studied the involvement of immigrants linked to colonization projects with the extraction and cultivation of erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis, Saint-Hilaire) in Rio Grande do Sul state. The time frame from the century XIX into the beginning of XX, corresponds to a time that this product had strong presence in the southern economy. The search interpreted a variety of sources, such as official reports, images, oral testimonies and newspapers that circulated in the areas of colonization. The results indicate a considerable presence of European immigrants or their descendants born in Brazil, in interaction with the national peasantry, the forestry extraction of erva-mate and in the further cultivation of the plant.