The Geographical Names of Petrópolis/RJ (Brazil) in the mid-nineteenth century: cultural origins and toponymic motivation
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Menezes, P.M.L.; 2Souza, B.C.P.
1
2INSTITUTO BRASILEIRO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA
Abstract
The analysis of geographical names in its multidisciplinary aspect refers to a number of features that aid in understanding aspects involving both the denominator when the named element. Therefore, toponymic studies seek to not only research the origin of the name and its transformations, but also its intrinsic relationship with the place, as the name can be understood as a reflection of the performance of a particular social group in a determined space and time. In this sense, an important concept to be used is the toponymic motivation to investigate the impulses that led to appointment helps unravel the social and cultural context in which the appointment and the denominator individual were involved. Complementary to this analysis, the identification of the cultural origin of place names that allows to plot parallels with the most diverse groups who experienced the named place and its effective ownership over it. Thus, seeking to employ these concepts, this paper presents a comprehensive study of geographical names of Petrópolis in the mid-nineteenth century. This town located in the mountainous region of the state of Rio de Janeiro / Brazil has its history linked to the plans of the Imperial Court in the nineteenth century, which justifies its choice as an area of study of this research. D. Pedro I, emperor of Brazil, chose the area where the city was founded as the ideal place to host the summer palace of his court. In addition to this uniqueness, the city, which was all planned to attend the imperial demand, also housed a German colony that provided the manpower required for building up the city. To perform the proposed analysis were used as inputs for research two historical cartographic documents dating from 1846 and 1854. The first of these illustrates the spatial organization of the city at the time of its foundation and the second shows the city after its first decade of existence. The place names extracted of the historical cartographic documents were classified according to their cultural origin and toponymic motivation (according to taxonomy developed by Dick, 1990). The results show, in accordance with the large presence of Germans in Petrópolis, that most of the place names held in cartographic document of 1846 has German origin, motivated mainly by the names of existing locations in the country where they came from immigrants. The second group evaluated, the names contained in the cartographic document of 1854, also points out the significant presence of German names to a lesser degree than that seen in the first input also the motivations that led to the appointment of the features are more varied.