Posse e propriedade no Médio Rio Doce – MG : processos administrativos de concessão de terras (1940-1960)

Abstract

This thesis had as its themethe constitution of the property constitution by the Pioneering Front (frente pioneira),therelationsand networs ofinterdependence that settled in themiddle Doce river, in Minas Gerais. It was sought to understand the administrative processes of the concession of lands, problematizing the legislation,analyzing its historical construction andobserving the interests that converged to the wilderness’ development. It was observed that with the Pioneering Front’s entrance, as of the 1940s, resources were invested to the insertion of this region in the production market. The Pioneering Front constituted immense farms encompassing squatters’ lands, who claimed their rights, but who were neglected by the capital owners. Several problems were observed in the processes of land concessions and in the Secretary of Agriculture, which was dismantled and inoperative. For the understanding of such problems, processes of land concessions were analyzed, inwhich there were reports of disturbance or litigation, but also other problems. The methodology applied was archive research, mainly the Secretary of State of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply’s Property Archive, in the state of Minas Gerais, with qualitative analysis of the sources. Administrativeprocesses of the concession of landswere chosen land grant in the period 1930-1960, which presented a problem at some stage of their processing. It was observed a complex net for the concession of lands. Obtaining the title was not an individual enterprise of the complainant, it was dependent on a range of people who were involved in the process. The opacity of the law, motivated by the excess of rules and lack of knowledge of the legislation, turned more difficult to the people with little education (or none) to access the legal means to defend themselves from the disturbances.