VIAGENS E TURISMO: EMÍLIA SNETHLAGE E HELOISA ALBERTO TORRES AS CIENTISTAS E VIAJANTES DA AMAZÔNIA DO SÉCULO XX

Abstract

The trips in the Amazon region bring up many perspectives of research in differentareas of knowledge. Studies in history, mainly, show themselves as windows to thenotion of that space that has always taken over the Eurocentric imaginary. AndTourism has also sought to expand investigations about the region, based ontheories of travel. Travelers and naturalists were the main characters who came andlanded here to write, paint and study the natural and human components of theregion. These male travelers comprised a majority. But, women were also presenthere, exploring and researching the Amazon, specifically the State of Para. Sciencewas one of the main pillars for the exploration of the Amazon to become part of theexperience of these and, perhaps, “first and first tourists ”. The objective of thisresearch is to present how two scientists, a German Emilia Snethlage and aBrazilian Heloisa Alberto Torres developed research in the Amazon of Para andfrom their studies point out a possible connection with the History of Tourism in theregion. These two scientists became important names in the natural and socialsciences, respectively, in Brazil and in the world. The theoretical approach of thisarticle is built on the History of Science and Tourism. Going through the study ofGender, as the focus is two female scientists. The methodology supported inHistory, where the sources in libraries such as Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, andin websites of the National Digital Library and the collection of the National Archivesof Rio de Janeiro are the objects of analysis of the travels of these scientists.Instruments used are travel reports, letters, newspaper clippings, publications inwhich these researchers' incursions appear. Among the main results to date, thetravels of these women scientists included elements that today are understood astourist facilities, such as: lodging, transport, food, networks of guides. It is interestingto note how these surveys come close to understanding how the region wasinvestigated by them. And even more so, their letters and reports show how thesetrips, besides being scientific, envisioned the understanding of how History andTourism can come together as disciplines to understand how the tourist activitydeveloped in the Amazon region.