Pelos caminhos das águas: um estudo da hidromínia da mesorregião Norte maranhense

Abstract

The occupation of determined physical space by the human being and the need of localization in the geographic space perform that the man names spaces, ensuring his survival. So, by means of toponymic studies, knowledge which composes the Onomastic, it is verified the relationship established between the naming and culture and the history. The Toponymy occupies it studies in the names of places, cities, villages etc., besides of geographical elements. The research approaches the toponymy from the Brazilian State of Maranhão, specially focused in the hydronymia from indigenous origin related to the region comprised for the North Mesoregion from Maranhão that is located inside the hidrographic region of the western northest ocidental. This area, also known as Frente Litorânea de expansão do espaço maranhense, represents a dense water network (rivers, lakes, lagoons, streams, igarapes, swamps) that allowed/allows the displacement and the survival of the man in the Maranhão territory, as integrant part of the territory which belonged, in the eighteenth century, to the Maranhão Colonial State which possessed an indigenous population composed by 30 peoples, approximately 250.000 individuals, being one of the Brazilian centers with a huge density of indigenous speaks which belongs to two language trunks – Macro-jê and Tupi-Guarani or Macro-Tupi. Currently, Maranhão has an indigenous self-declared population of 37,272 individuals (IBGE, 2010). Considering this reality, we aim to delineate general trends of the Maranhão hydronymy, with emphasis on the names of indigenous origin that fall within the area delimited for this study. For collecting the data, we performed na indirect research in the public collection, intending to collect old maps, besides of research in documents and official sites, for the search of current maps. To the achievement of the corpus, it was realized the survey of: (i) the whole hydronymia of the mesoregion from the North of Maranhão, by means of current maps from IBGE and (ii) hydronymia in maps from the territoty of Maranhão from seventeenth, eihteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and in works of chroniclers as Claude d’Abbeville, Yves d’Évreux and Frei Francisco de Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres Maranhão The studies of Dauzat (1926), Vasconcelos (1931), Dick (1990, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007), Isquerdo (2006, 2009, 2011), Seabra (2006, 2008, 2012), Isquerdo e Seabra (2010), Rosselló i Verger (2010) and Mujika Ulazia (2010) based this research. With this material we constitute the corpus of the research with: (i) current maps that are inserted in six microregions and total 60 municipalities in Maranhão and correspond to a total of 823 hydrographies, of which 233 are of indigenous origin (more specifically Tupi - LT), 551 (NE), and (ii) ancient maps whose data reveal a considerable indigenous presence in the Maranhão hydronymy of the region investigated. Some rather emblematic examples can be noticed in Itapecuru-Mirim, Icatu, Pindaré and Mearim. The data presented the phytotopyms and zootopony taxa of physical nature as the most recurrents, so that the influence of the environment (vegetables and animals) was significant on the nomination of the hydronymies collected. According to the data, it was possible to understand the relationship that the man establishes with the language, culture and environment, since the toponym, as a part of the lexicon of a language, reflects values and beliefs of a linguistic community.