Industrial heritage of a lumber company in Santa Catarina state, Brazil: considerations about industrial archaeology and the history of material culture

Abstract

The current article introduces industrial landscape formation in Brazil’s southern backcountry early in the 20th century, and the implementation of a large log extraction and processing complex – the extracted lumber was well preserved in midwestern Santa Catarina State up to that time. The operation of large lumber processing facilities (including the construction of company-town), which was boosted by substantial changes in destruction of the natural environment was little affected by such ventures, at that time. A population of squatters composed of Portuguese-Brazilians and indigenous peoples lived in this area before enterprise was implemented. Subsistence in this region was based on systems that were little systems that had little impact on the environment. The present study focuses on industrial archaeology of the lumber company; thus, we herein present the basic background of both cultural heritage and archaeology studies that have been slowly developed in this area.