A ribeira e o sertão: redes sociais e comerciais no arraial de Piranhas (Capitania da Parahiba do Norte, século XVIII)

Abstract

This analysis covers the history of the formation the paths of in the hinterlands of the Captaincy Parahiba North, through the dynamics of the conquest of the interior and the gradual process of settlement throughout the 18 th Century. We present the local historiography produced by early 20 th Century historians and the new researches about this topic, recently developed by university students. About the hinterland we must also analyze their producing agents, the society that was made and how it has appropriated this space to cater their needs, in other words, commercial and social webs ensnared in itself and with other regions. The inside of the captaincy was not an isolated place, it was involved in a commercial and social networks maintained contacts with other centers. It shows in the confrontations and disputes the hinterland and the search of the State on imposing its power by means of body of ordinances. The aim of this work is, by notary fonts, to analyze parental relations established in the jurisdiction of the Povoação de Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso do Piancó (current city of Pombal), the Captaincy of Parahiba North, to demonstrate the importance of family networks and commercial networks mechanisms crystallizers of a local political organization and maintenance of places of power. The notary's pen has left us a considerable amount of documentation that allows us to improve the study of social interaction and the possibility to seek the consolidation of a political of privileges in a new space of conquest.