Unveiling Regional Archaeological Heritage, Historical Archaeology at Vale do Ribeira: The Case of Sobrado dos Toledos, Iguape-São Paulo

Abstract

This paper is about the palimpsest of the colonial heritage of Iguape-São Paulo, Brazil. Our objective is to illustrate the various occupations present at Sobrado dos Toledos, a historic building in the Brazilian context, and a neoclassical symbol of an important colonial context. We also highlight the importance of this monumental architectural structure as a landmark of a social reality in space. We present the social agents that lived in the city of Iguape and that made and are part of the stories recovered in this context. We also restore and exalt the diverse memories lived there, reconstructing and redoing a biography of the place through historical archeology.

Introduction

In this paper, we examine archaeological remains found on the first archaeological seasons conducted in Sobrado dos Toledos in the city of Iguape, São Paulo, Brazil. This city has been occupied by a sequence of cultures that can be identified in the material culture exhumed in the sobrado (i.e., a palimpsest of occupations) with objects mostly associated with the local elite. Let us not forget that "palimpsest" is any surface on which the foregoing content is still tenuously visible. The word, of Greek origin, means, "what is scraped to write again" (Prado and Taam 2017: 44-45).

It is also important to highlight that there is no sense of belonging or identification of the social agents that live today on the margins of the city of Iguape (Indigenous, quilombolas, descendants of the families that once lived in the townhouses, rural workers, caboclos, family farmers, caiçaras of the city, among other groups belonging to that context) with this heritage of Iguape. In this way, we reflect on the appreciation of material heritage as a space of memory and social insertion.

The work presented here is part of the Archaeological Rescue and Monitoring Project for the Restoration of Sobrado dos Toledos in Iguape-SP, intended for the restoration of the infrastructure and conservation of significant spaces for the history and architecture of the city. The research is being carried out with funds from the Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento (PAC) for historical cities, a program of the Brazilian Federal Government, with execution of the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional - IPHAN (National Institute of the Historical and Artistic Heritage).

The listing of this complex was due to its symbolic, physical constitution as a building, and to its framing as a protected urban space inserted in a natural landscape. Today, this story comes to light and makes us reflect on the memory of different people, its resignification as public space, and its current appropriation.

About the Listing of the Historical Complex and Natural Environment of Iguape

The listing of the Conjunto Histórico e Paisagístico da Cidade de Iguape (Historic and Paisagistic Complex of City of Iguape) occurred in 2009, but it was registered only in 2011, in Livro do Tombo Arqueológico, Etnográfico e Paisagístico (Nascimento and Scifoni 2015: 26-38). In its tortuous streets, the beauty of its buildings and mansions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, besides the majestic Basílica of Bom Jesus de Iguape, and the coziness of its squares, surprise us. Not to mention the beautiful Church of the Rosary and the Church of St. Benedict, built from colonial molds mortared with whale oil. This mortar made with whale oil, shells, and gravels is present in all the buildings of the city and adorns the interior of the houses.

The decision to list the whole urban site started from the understanding of its historical formation and the web of relations with its surrounding nature. According to Nascimento and Scifoni (2015: 26-38), the reason the urban site was situated in its current location was due to Morro da Espia:

A necessidade de proteger o núcleo dos ataques de piratas e corsários e a busca de água potável para a expansão da povoação, levaram a mudança para a base do Morro da Espia. Nesse lugar surgiu a atual Iguape, em 1614, ao mesmo tempo protegida e escondida pelo Mar Pequeno e Ilha Comprida, com abundantes recursos hídricos em função das nascentes de rios que descem do Morro da Espia, esse desempenhando também função estratégica de vigilância devido a altitude em relação ao conjunto do litoral (Nascimento and Scifoni 2015: 32).

The necessity to protect the urban center from pirates and corsairs’ attacks and the search for drinking water for the expansion of the settlement brought change to the base of Morro da Espia. In this place it was established the current written by researcher Roberto, in 1614, at the same time protected and hidden by Mar Pequeno and Ilha Cumprida, with abundant hydric resources attributed to the river sources at Morro da Espia, which also served a strategic function of vigilance due to its altitude in relation to the coast” (Nascimento and Scifoni 2015: 32). (free translation)

Besides Morro da Espia, other natural elements in Iguape are important for the comprehension of its historical formation. One is its seaport, Porto Grande. It consolidated a commercial activity that led the city to moments of economic boom and an increase in urban dynamics. In this pier, moored ships ranged from small boats to cruise ships. As a docking site on the Brazilian coast, it generated considerable steam boat traffic in Mar Pequeno (Nascimento and Scifoni 2015: 34).

The highly symbolic regional landscapes also correspond to the river from which was washed the image of Bom Jesus de Iguape, found on a nearby beach around 1647. The image was placed on the altar of the church and, in the years that followed, gave rise to the Bom Jesus of Iguape Procession, the second largest religious festival in the State of São Paulo. The aforementioned creek is known as the Source of the Lord (Nascimento and Scifoni 2015: 35).

Henceforth, we understand that IPHAN's listing defines the built heritage as an important indicator of the differentiation of what should become a collective product integrated into the community (Vieira 2003: 8-9). By listing the entire complex of the Iguape natural landscape, along with its architectural context, it is recognized that the social function of memory goes beyond what is celebratory or what is in the visual field. The listing of a landscape absorbs every part of the affective memory of all social agents, forming an extremely complex web of collective relations, feelings, and memories.

Iguape: A History That Goes Back to an Indigenous Past

The natural environment of Iguape (i.e., vast plains, abundant drinking water, strategic natural defenses, easy navigation routes), appreciated by the commission accountable for the listing of Iguape, also caught the attention of the first settlers of this region. The records of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN 1988), show three precolonial archaeological sites in the city of Iguape, that tell us something about the start of this settlement.

The history of Iguape’s occupation dates back to a remote past. The regional archaeological study of Baixo Vale do Ribeira, developed by the archaeologist Maria Cristina Mineiro Scatamacchia (2005: 56-68), centered mainly in the municipalities of Iguape and Cananéia, with some punctual intervention in Ilha Comprida. She identified three occupation patterns related to different chronological moments. The dates obtained so far show an occupation ranging from 7,000 to 1,000 years ago.

Scatamacchia informs us that the intense relationship between the people who occupied this region and the aquatic environment—along with the different ways of adaptation—were vital for the survival of the group. The long occupation in the region developed cultural traits having relative stability.

According Scatamacchia (2005: 54), the archaeological sites that correspond to Indigenous settlements are located on small cliffs located near Rio Ribeira and Mar Pequeno. The associated material culture encompasses lythic, ceramic, and bone artifacts, with the presence of objects of European origin in some places. The ethnographic information of the sixteenth century mentions other materials that are not present in the archaeological record031, including the use of large canoes and certain fishing implements.

In the 1980s a systematic archaeological investigation was carried out in the southern region of the state of São Paulo, precisely where the highest density of sites appear and where no sambaqui (shell midden) had yet been excavated. Uchôa and Garcia (1983: 19-29) present a registry of the archaeological sites in Baixada Cananéia-Iguape, and in 2004 Calippo (2004) resumed research in the region with a new systematic survey, registering a greater quantity of sambaquis for that region. In 2015, Zanettini Arqueologia indicated that more than 160 archaeological sites were registered in the municipalities of Cananéia, Iguape, and Ilha Comprida (Wichers 2011).

In the wake of these reflections on the past Indigenous people, Rodrigues and Afonso (2002) relate the sites found in Vale do Ribeira de Iguape and Vale do Itararé with populations of the Jê language family, more specifically the Kaingang, the Itararé tradition most present in the Central-South region. The Indigenous people, who survived the constant struggles over land tenure, were pushed into the woodland and are now in the vicinity of the Municipality of Iguape.

The Foundation of Iguape

According to Diegues (2007), the city of Iguape was officially founded in 1538, although the first population center was settled in Icapara. The cycle of gold extraction began some time later, around 1550, when alluvial gold was found in Vale do Ribeira, in the region of Apiai-Iporanga, in Alto Ribeira, Eldorado, in Médio Ribeira, Cananéia and in the coast of Paraná. This movement resulted in the beginning of the settlement of Iguape. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the first Africans were brought as slaves for the mining industry.

Anthropologist Antônio Carlos Diegues (2007) informs us that in 1798 the total population present in the vila of Iguape amounted to 4,291 people, of which 3,354 were free (78.2%) and 937 were captive (21.8%). In 1836, non-slaves and slaves totaled 9,366 people, meaning that during almost four decades, the population more than doubled (an increase of 118.3%). The free segment reached 6,719 people, representing an increase of 100.3%; the slaves amounted to 2,647 men and women, a total increase of 182.5%. It is worth mentioning that these demographic censuses did not consider the Natives, who lived on the margins of society in this period. In this regard, Vagner Carvalheiro Porto (2008: 139) informs us that Indigenous labor was used for the extraction of gold in the region of Guarulhos, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Would not Iguape be the same? Why not believe that the Natives could have worked, along with black people, on the extraction of gold in the Vale do Ribeira?

The Casa de Oficina Real de Fundição de Ouro (Royal Gold Casting Workshop House) was founded around 1630. It is considered, by some historians, the first casting house in Brazil. There is no consensus on the dates of its foundation, since some say that the first casting house was established in Sao Paulo around 1580 to cast the gold mined from the Jaraguá mines and other deposits around the vila. Today, the house functions as the historical museum of the municipality (Diegues 2007).

In the middle of eighteenth century, the town began to rise economically with the advent of activities related to naval construction. During this period, some yards were established in Iguape, in which were built numerous ships and barges ordered by shipowners from Santos and Rio de Janeiro. However, the construction of an artificial channel in 1855, known as Valo Grande, aimed at the connection of Rio Ribeira to Mar Pequeno, resulted in the progressive process of silting. This fact caused the progressive decay of Porto Grande and was responsible for the economic collapse of the region. From 1942 on, the port completely lost its main function and, in 1967, was lost to urban reform (Diegues 2007).

Agricultural production was resumed with rice monoculture that brought, in the middle of the nineteenth century, a new apogee. Especially helped were the municipalities of Eldorado and Iguape, where the naval commerce was intensified with several Brazilian ports and even some of the Bacia da Prata.

The majority of Iguape houses, according to Diegues, were constructed at the time of rice production, between the beginning of eighteenth century and end of nineteenth century. The owners of rice mills and sobrados (townhouses) imported products from Portugal and, after, from Rio de Janeiro. There, clothing and cutlery would be turned into symbols of wealth and luxury.

Large imposing sobrados were built in the vila’s central area and also in the surroundings, serving as housing to the rich “lords of rice” and their numerous families. This condition resulted in the construction of the Sobrado dos Toledos. The book Nossa História: O Arroz de Iguape (2010), written by researcher Roberto Fortes, includees a report from the tabloid “O Centenário,” which provides valuable information on Iguapense society during the golden age of rice production, mainly the time of the Proclamation of Independence.

During the archeological work in Sobrado dos Toledos, discussions with the residents of Iguape revealed that the economic peak in the production of rice is a vivid memory to those residents, Their answers to questions always associated the small and wealthy objects found in the excavation to the period of rice cultivation.

In 1854, when rice commerce was on the rise, Iguape and its parishes had a free population of 10,519 people and a slave population of 4,702. Between 1850 and 1880, the average number of bags of rice exported was around 50,000. The increase of rice farming was due to the influx of African captives during the first half of nineteenth century. The end of the Atlantic slave trade significantly affected the population of Iguape. There was an increase in the free population in 1874, and at the same time a reduction of the captive contingent, which represented 1,584 people in that year and only 679 on the eve of the abolition (1886). According to Diegues (2007), there was an intense Japanese immigration in Iguape, subsequent to a European one, which occurred in the early twentieth century, shortly after the signing of the Lei Áurea in 1888.

In Iguape, there was mainly Japanese immigration, subsequent to European, that occurred in the early twentieth century. The town of Jipovura was created there. It has the striking characteristic of house construction that mixes earthen techniques with Japanese finishing touches. For the Japanese, it was a difficult start, marked by the attempt to live in a new country by relying on rice cultivation, manioc flour, and brewing. However, in 1913 the Brazilian authorities recognized the importance of the Japanese immigrants and decided to help their development by founding specific colonies to receive immigrants. These would be administered by the immigrants themselves. Thus, the Katsura colony was established on November 9, 1913, having in its name a tribute to a Japanese minister (Pereira 2005:12).

Even after Lei Áurea, the blacks who had fled to quilombos remained in these localities living mainly on agriculture. Currently, the remaining quilombo community lives in Comunidade Quilombola Morro Seco, which is located in the municipality of Iguape, São Paulo. The community is today composed of 22 families, totaling 85 people. More than half the population is between 19 and 60 years old. There are 16 children up to 12 years old and 14 elders, over 60 years old.

It is interesting to observe that, although the historiography does not give prominence to the Indigenous presence in the region, they lived and developed in Iguape over centuries. Herrero informs us of indigenous groups living in Iguape in Ka'aguy Hovy Indigenous Land, where

há três aldeias pequenas dos Guarani-Mbyá: Itapuã e Itape e Jejyty, na enseada da Toca do Bugio. Próxima ao bairro de Icapara, essa TI No tekoha Jejyty pelo menos oito famílias, com vinte pessoas, vivem de acordo com o modo tradicional, plantando para subsistência e vendendo artesanato em Iguape. No tekoha Itapuã vivem 12 famílias, com 70 pessoas. Não há conflito com a vizinhança, apesar de 30 famílias não indígenas viverem no território tradicional e muitos visitantes circularem na área, atraídos pela pesca e pela Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) no alto do morro (Herrero 2016: 8).

there are three small villages of the Guarani-Mbyá: Itapuã and Itape and Jejyty, in the cove of Toca do Bugio. Next to the neighborhood of Icapara, in the indigenous land of No tekoha Jejyty lives at least eight families, with twenty people, in the traditional way, planting for subsistence and selling handicrafts in Iguape. There are 12 families living in Itapuã, with 70 people. There is no conflict with the neighborhood, although 30 non-indigenous families live in the traditional territory and many visitors circulate in the area, attracted by fishing and by the Área of Proteção Ambiental (Environmental Protection Area) on top of the hill (Herrero 2016: 8). (free translation)

In Vale do Ribeira is concentrated one of the last remaining areas of the original Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and it houses several traditional and local communities - quilombolas, Natives, caiçaras, caboclos, and family farmers, creating a great entanglement of cultures that have intertwined over time and that still exists.

This social web formed during the creation of the city of Iguape has persisted over the years, even though not all existing social groups feel they belong to the predominant Portuguese culture. Given this, Sobrado dos Toledos is part of the history of the dominant elite of Iguape, with its portentous monumentality echoing in the landscape. Given the political and social economic situation of the nineteenth century, we can conjecture that these different social groups at the time served as the labor supply for the enrichment of local aristocrats and for the construction of the building.

The Sobrado dos Toledos Building

The imposing Sobrado dos Toledos (Fig. 1), in the historic center of the municipality, is part of the architectural complex listed by the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage. The building now known as Sobrado dos Toledos (Fig. 2) was built in the first half of the nineteenth century by José Carlos de Toledo, the son of Comendador José Jacinto de Toledo, who lived in the old Rua Direita (now 9 de Julho) in the building now known as "Hotel São Paulo" (or “Sobrado dos Mâncios"). José Carlos de Toledo, even though he was one of the richest men of his time, died impoverished. Justice confiscated the building and, on September 17, 1879, his son-in-law, Arlindo Carneiro de Araújo Aguiar, and his sons, José Carlos de Toledo Júnior and Antônio Carlos de Toledo, acquired the sobrado from the Municipal Court of Iguape (Fortes et al. 2011).

Fig. 1.

Current Situation of the Building. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – July 2018

Fig. 2.

Current situation on the side of the building. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – July 2018

On October 25, 1918, Antônio Carlos de Toledo Junior and others sold their shares to Ana de Toledo Aguiar, another daughter of José Carlos de Toledo. It is said that the “Chuveiro de Ouro” and “Grêmio Flor de Açucena” clubs operated in the 1920s on the upper floor, in addition to the Maneco Gatto Bar.

Ana de Toledo Aguiar was a devotee of Bom Jesus, which lead her, on July 31, 1931, together with her children, Arlindo de Aguiar Júnior, Júlio de Toledo Aguiar, and other households, to donate the house to the Sanctuary of Iguape, for housing poor pilgrims during the patron saint festivities. The building then became known as "Sobrado do Santo" (Fortes et al. 2011).

In 2010, after a torrential rain in the region, the entire roof collapsed, destroying the floors of the first and second floors. Since then, the property was closed and some of the rubble remained in place. The building needed interventions to install a new roof, floors, lining and masonry, and to restore existing frames.

In 2013, the Brazilian Federal Government published a public notice with the intent to contract restoration in the uncovered and unoccupied area of the lot. The proposal was to implement a garden landscaping project and infrastructure to install a cafe, to be leased by the owner. However, since then, the Diocesan Miter of the city of Registro, the current owner of the property, asks for the building to return to its function of serving pilgrims during the festivities of Bom Jesus and Nossa Senhora das Neves, which takes place every year from July 28 to August 6. On the other days of the year, it is expected to become a place to promote religious and local culture, with the holding of events, exhibitions, seminars, lectures and theatrical exhibitions.

Archaeological Studies in Sobrado dos Toledos

The Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) demanded, along with the restoration of the site, archaeological research. Therefore, we executed sample cross sections independent of the other activities in the building, opening excavation areas with structural or archaeological material. In this sense, the methodology was focused on preventive excavations of impact and monitoring (Figs. 3 and 4).

Fig. 3.

Aerial view of archaeological excavations. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 4.

Excavation Unit A1. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Due to the high archaeological potential of the Sobrado dos Toledos, we conducted subsurface excavations to prevent impact to archaeological heritage. Accordingly, surveys of 1 x 1 m tests were carried out to verify the subsoil in the area, using large excavation only when the possibility of finding archaeological artifacts was present.

The ongoing excavations revealed Sobrado dos Toledos’ occupations. Around 80% of the interior space was excavated. The observed stratigraphy portrays a period of intense occupation in the layers between 30 and 60 cm of depth, showing that they are related in the economic boom of the city of Iguape. Artifacts include coins dating to the end of the imperial period, a sandstone inkwell, a fragment of a toothbrush made of bone, smoking pipes, fragments of porcelain and ceramics, whole bottles, fractions of perfume and medicine bottles, and an abundant collection of buttons made of bone, glass, and mother-of-pearl, and a silver earring (Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12).

Fig. 5.

Bone buttons, mother of pearl and glass buttons. Credit: Wagner Magalhães –September 2018

Fig. 6.

Coins of the end of the Brazilian Imperial period. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 7.

Pottery border. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 8.

Fragments of pipe. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 9.

Ink bottle made of Grés. Foto: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 10.

Bone toothbrush. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 11.

Medicine and perfume bottles. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

Fig. 12.

Silver earring. Credit: Wagner Magalhães – September 2018

The material found in Sobrado dos Toledos is very indicative of Iguape’s high society. Everything suggests that Iguape's wealthier society was being influenced by the social behavior of the European bourgeoisie, influences that started with the arrival of the Portuguese court in Brazil. In this context, the processes of urban transformation and the importation of European values are also observed in the neoclassical forms of Sobrado dos Toledos.

Lima (1996) describes that people from the nineteenth century Brazilian society were concerned with how others would perceive them and how they behaved, in an attempt to conform to the social codes of civility and conduct of the time. Therefore, common practices of gesturing, moving, and eating were entirely changed, including the codes of posture. These attitudes, allied to the institution of Hippocratic humorism, and the increasing role of the state in people's daily lives in preventing diseases, especially infectious ones, were widespread. The idea that apparently healthy human beings could serve as carriers of pathogenic organisms led to an excessive concern with hygiene.

In Sobrado of Toledos this behavior is noticeable through the archaeological material associated with personal hygiene, health and dressing. Fifty-two bottles identified as medicine bottles were found. Seven of them were whole with descriptions, mainly purgatives. Many other fragments were possibly used to pack the aforementioned medicines. Other hygenic items include three fragments of toothbrush made of bone and one of plastic.

In the domain of housewares, home maintenance, and work, the seven glass and three ink cartridges associated with a pen tip, prove that the Toledo family belonged to a wealthy and literate class. In the domain of food are a large number of fragments of porcelain (742 pieces), a quantity higher than that found for other ceramic material (255 fragments). White porcelain is the most common tableware. Also found were Fow Blue blur and the Willow pattern, the “pair of doves,” well portrayed in the poetry of Cora Coralina, a poet from the 60s who lived in Cidade de Goiás, in the countryside of Goiás state, a city that also dates back to the seventeenth century.

Nonetheless, several basic food products were imported, and are well represented through a large number of glasses for drinks and condiments. According to reports, commercial ships from Rio de Janeiro returned loaded with products from Africa, from the metropole (i.e., dried foods, wines, olive oils) and slaves.Ships from Santos transported flours, aguardente, cotton cloths, and pork.

The archaeological excavations also brought to light 80 coins of silver and bronze, under the excavated strata, among which at least 7 are silver and 73 are bronze. The coins are in a chronological frame that ranges from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century.

During the season, 37 excavation units were excavated, followed by the monitoring of 42 points forecast for the installation of shoes and girders for the new foundation of the building. To facilitate the description of the monitoring work carried out in the Sobrado dos Toledos building, we organized the research area in three sectors: Front Room; Kitchen Area and Courtyard Area.

The excavations allowed the collection in situ of approximately 2,369 archaeological remains. All the material was taken to the laboratory, where they were cleaned, labeled, and classified, followed by morphological analysis. Of the pieces collected, 1,528 were collected during the archaeological rescue and 841 during the archaeological monitoring stage.

Studies of material culture have the potential to uncover elements not present in any other source, and it is possible, in the present case, to think of the archeology as illustrating the social dynamics of the place. In addition to studies of the artifacts, we considered it necessary to understand the site as a unit in which numerous cultural aspects were involved, both in the material culture produced and subsequently discarded, as well as in the modifications and adaptation of the spaces needed for each activity carried out at the site.

The objects of Sobrado dos Toledos reflect changes in thought processes and, consequently, social behavior in consumer goods, as well as some codes of conduct. The archaeological record makes it possible to register continuities/discontinuities in consumption, habits, and norms within a given group.

Those objects lead us to discussions about the daily habits linked to the cultural choices of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The culturally received and established habits in Iguape reflect, to some extent, the social habits of the French court's way of life, which in turn influenced many European courts, including the Portuguese, following the trend of metropolitan civility. The introduction of a new order of social behavior, reproduced from the European bourgeoisie, extended to Brazil, and the artifacts we have unveiled are a clear example of this.

The Meaning of Space for Memory Construction

A building directly impacts the lives of people and communities, defining and determining its social being. In conformity to Senatore and Zarankin (2002: 5-18), we consider buildings as social objects and, thus, laden with values and meanings. In this sense, buildings should not be comprehended only as a passive reflection, but rather as an active agent in the shaping of people. With this, we understand that the listing by IPHAN defines the built heritage as an important indicator of the differentiation of what should become a collective product, a good integrated into the community (Vieira 2003: 8-9).

Spaces change and transform, so each group in its time brings its necessary allusions to the constitution of a new place. Archaeologists thought about the conditions of space in which they were inserted, developing theories about behavioral patterns, with special interest in population dispersion, choice of housing, food, and environment. In this way, the description of physical space leads to understanding the preservation of these environments.

Spaces, in turn, are loaded with stories and references built collectively. The model created by the Polish architect Amos Rapoport (1990) considers that there are levels of meaning in the built environment that provide useful aids to addressing these questions. These include symbolic meaning, which describes symbolism encoded in buildings and confers deliberate meanings on identity and status as communicated by designers and builders, from individual houses to cities. It also identifies meanings that describe the ways in which a constructed environment interacts recursively with human behavior and movement.

Rapoport’s interpretation encouraged us to decodify and comprehend the intentions of governors and builders. Our proposal is to emphasize the behavior of those actively interacting with the buildings.

From the concepts developed by Mark Leone (1989, 2005), in his study of “power gardens” in eighteenth century Annapolis, we can infer that the architectural grandeur of Sobrado dos Toledos impacted the daily life of the inhabitants of Iguape, in order to emphasize the power and status of the elite (Jackson 2017; Leone et al. 1989, 2005).

In the same way that the principles of Baroque were discussed by Leone regarding his studies on “power gardens” (Leone et al. 1989: 36), in our case, we observed that the chosen use of neoclassical lines present in Sobrado dos Toledos reinforced messages about preferences, hierarchy, and control of the nineteenth century São Paulo elite.

The Historical Heritage Question

Pelegrini and Funari (2006: 11) remind us that for Hugues de Varine-Bohan cultural patrimony can be divided into three major categories: 1) those belonging to nature and the environment; 2) those belonging to knowledge (expertise), that is, non-tangible elements of cultural heritage; and 3) what we call cultural goods, things, objects, artifacts, and constructions obtained through expertise and mastery of nature.

Heritage [patrimônio] is also called patrimony, which has a Latin origin, patrimonium (i.e., everything that belonged to the pater (father), that was patriarchal, individual, and private). With the advent of Christianity, between the fourth and fifth centuries and the Middle Ages (sixth and fifteenth centuries), a symbolic, collective, and religious character was added to the meaning of the word. Since the rise of the modern system of states, the meaning has again been transformed, migrating from the private and aristocratic sphere to the collective sphere (Pelegrini 2006)

Modern nation-states, according to Pelegrini and Funari (2006), first invented citizens and a national culture, foundations for their national bases. The heritage that we today know was born within a language and territory, thus coming into being as an invention of the national culture. In this sense, the concept of a national heritage comes from the French Revolution and was born amid civil strife with the creation of a commission charged with the preservation of national monuments to protect what at that time was considered an important heritage to be preserved (Pelegrini and Funari 2006: 17).

Throughout the twentieth century, the heritage category began to encompass definitions other than those related to economic, legal, and family property structures. The concept came to include other senses, discussions, and adjectives, such as genetic, natural, historical, cultural, and ethnographic heritages, among others.

The new approach directly reflected the way government structures began to act in the face of valuing and preserving historical and cultural assets and testimonies related to social memories and behaviors, whose narratives relate to the configuration and formation of Brazilian national identity (Gonçalves 2007).

In this sense, research that involves surveying and recording Brazilian historical and cultural heritage were directed, above all, to the recognition and comprehension of different knowledge, expertise, cultural practices, and expressions that go back to the histories, memories, and identities of different social groups that occupied and occupy the most diverse geographical contexts. Therefore, it should be pointed out that the records of Brazilian heritage consist mainly of preserving material, immaterial, and natural goods to which sociocultural values are associated, that is, goods representing histories and cultures of places and groups’ heterogeneous social networks.

As a result, cultural heritage, in its different dimensions (material, immaterial, and natural), expresses cultural meanings and above all deserves recording and appreciation. However, these same cultural goods represent not only culture, but also memories and identification elaborated by the subjects who inscribe their impressions on them. The process of preservation of cultural heritage, according to Anico (2005: 75)

veio materializar a obsessão pelo passado, configura-se como uma estratégia de protecção, baseada na conservação de identidades centradas, unidas e coerentes, mediante a valorização dos patrimónios e da memória, como resposta às pressões das forças da globalização, ao desconforto do presente e às incertezas do futuro.

has come to materialize the obsession with the past, it is a strategy of protection, based on the conservation of centralized, united and coherent identities, through the valorization of heritage and memory, as a response to the pressures of the forces of globalization, to the discomfort of the present and uncertainties of the future. (free translation)

The preservation of cultural heritage "results, therefore, from practices that, by definition, are developed at the interface between government agencies and specific and specialized segments of society” (free translation) (Arantes 2006: 426).

Consequently, based on the political valorization of cultural heritage, including them as an important part in the process of constructing national identity it is possible to build with social actors an understanding of the historical facts and cultural aspects that continue to be part of the cultural reality that they experienced/experience.

Identification and Belonging in Brazilian Colonial Cities

The issue of belonging is associated to the notion of intrinsic identification between material culture and/or buildings that are part of the cultural reality of a given society. Nevertheless, this interaction is not a natural process of everyday involvement, and is part of a transmission of purely discursive knowledge, distanced from the individual that detains it in its surroundings (i.e., it is part of a discourse of power, as Michel Foucault (1979) warns us in Microfísica do Poder). Foucault inform us that it is necessary to make a “history of spaces” - which would be at the same time a “history of power” -, which studies would range from the great strategies of geopolitics to the small tactics of habitat, of institutional architecture, of classrooms and hospitals’ administration, going through economic and political implementations (Foucault 1979).

The distanciation between the contemporary population and its colonial monuments is the result of a discourse of an elitist heritage policy. In this sense, the discussions of Julianna Jackson (2017) allow us to understand the role of elites in marking their locus in society. The establishment of a landmark in the landscape (the monumentality of Sobrado dos Toledos) leaves no doubt about the place of the wealthiest and the least wealthy in social life.

As Foucault (1979) tells us, the monument functions as a support for a memory and the city as a support for a constructed discourse. He emphasizes that the city must be understood as a text to be read.

What is chosen as heritage is part of choices made for preservation, for the construction of a historical and cultural identity based on the obliviousness of slave quarters, slums, and working-class neighborhoods (Fernandes 1993: 276). The feeling of alienation lies in non-belonging, in everything that is not part of the reality of the majority. Pedro Paulo Funari (2001: 23-32), citing the work of Eunice Durhan, informs us that heritage is related to the “history of dominant classes, with the history of the dominated rarely preserved” (free translation).

Beyond the choices of buildings, the choices regarding spaces are part of the concrete reality of who holds power. In this sense, the ideas of Henri Lefebvre (1979) can be put to use. The Marxist philosopher coined the term “Le droit à la ville,” which means “the right to the city” in English; it is the population’s right to have access to urban life and all that implies. Lefebvre made it clear that the “cultural process by which people construct their understandings of the world is an inherently geographical concern.” He shows that place is concrete: it refers to the precise location of factories, working quarters, mills, banks, houses, roads, and parks.

Nonetheless, in this same line of reasoning, the archaeologist Charles Orser (1996) considers that space, although measurable, may be an abstraction linked to an invisible network. As such, spatiality has a dual character that incorporates physical and mental elements.

Discussing Heritage Education in Brazil: The Case of Iguape, São Paulo

All heritage must be preserved and valued, and therefore concrete actions are required in the field of heritage education. In Brazil, it is Normative Instruction N^o. 001, of March 25, 2015, of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), which establishes the necessary procedures to obtain environmental licenses for the authorization of archaeological research. IPHAN establishes in article six, seventh paragraph, which, for the accomplishment of any archaeological study, the development of programs concerning heritage education with the local community is essential.

This law highlights the importance of developing heritage education actions with the community involved. For Silva (2007: 43), this law “reinforces the systematization of conservation strategies and heritage management in a joint work between archaeologists, their research on the sites and the community, through the execution of heritage education programs.” According to Viana quoted Silva (2007: 43) “any economic enterprise that aims to explore the archaeological heritage will only sustain itself if a community involved has some understanding of what is being exposed, as it will be its biggest promoter, as well as the guardian of this heritage.” This statement confirms the importance of community involvement so that there can be a real understanding and preservation of its heritage. All citizens, together with the state, have a very important role to play in preserving, valuing and disseminating their heritage.

Still, with regard to heritage education, Ordinance n^o. 07 of the IPHAN of December 1, 1988, in its sixth paragraph states that “The decision shall consider the criteria adopted for the valuation of the archaeological site and all the elements in it, as well as the alternatives of maximizing its scientific, cultural and educational potential ” (IPHAN 1988: 2).

In Brazil, the term "Educação Patrimonial" was translated from English Heritage Education and its diffusion in Brazil began from 1983, through discussions that arose around the preservation of the Historical and Cultural Heritage, as a result of the First Seminar about “Educational use of museums and monuments.” This event focused on the presentation of a pedagogical proposal that aimed to use primary sources at museums and monuments as didactic resources in schools. It is important to note that all these discussions were based on the experiences of England (Horta et al. 1999; Silva 2007).

Heritage education aims to raise awareness about the value of those involved and preserve their identity and cultural memory. According to Soares (2003: 24):

A Educação Patrimonial é um programa que busca conscientizar as comunidades da importância de criar, valorizar e preservar o patrimônio local. Essa conscientização é um exercício de interação entre a população e o patrimônio de sua região. Para uma melhor compreensão inicial, eles são traços que podem ser tocados ou percebidos.

Heritage Education is a program that seeks to make communities aware of the importance of creating, valuing and preserving local heritage. This awareness is an exercise of interaction between the population and the heritage of their region. For a better initial understanding, they are traces that can be touched or perceived.

The promotion of cultural identity, the preservation of a culture, the appreciation of a heritage is possible through heritage education, because, as stated by Soares (2003: 25) the best way to conserve memory is to remember it. The best way to tell the story is to think it. The best way to secure identity is to maintain it. All this is done through education, and educating for the preservation, conservation, and cultural enhancement is called heritage education. The activity of heritage education can be developed in any cultural manifestation, whether material (such as monuments or even archaeological sites), or immaterial, such as rites, dances, body paintings, among other activities.

Our goals of the Heritage Education Program is to promote initiatives for the defense and preservation of archaeological artifacts, to promote co-responsibility for the preservation of regional and local archaeological heritage, and to communicate, clarify, and sensitize communities and professionals, directly or indirectly involved with the undertaking, on the specifics of archaeological heritage, heritage research, and the legal implications of any damage to archaeological and historical sites. Our audience was students from elementary and middle schools of the municipality of Iguape, as well as the staff involved in the work in question.

For these two groups (students from the municipality and construction workers), we guided our actions based on the following questions: What is archeology? How does the archaeologist work? What can we learn about our past from archeology? What does archeology say about our municipality? How can we learn more about the urbanization processes and the landscape of the municipality? For both construction workers and high school students, we talked about the historical material culture that was being found in the midst of restoration work: the glasses, dishes, bones, and other fragments that tell the history of habits of the population of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Figs. 13 and 14).

Fig. 13.

Teacher of school of Iguape presenting us to the students. Credit: Vagner Porto – November 2018

Fig. 14.

Elaine Alencastro, team archaeologist, explaining to the students the history of some objects found in the excavations. Credit: Vagner Porto – November 2018

Final considerations

The nature of memory is of the same order as the nature of time (Prado and Taam 2017: 41). Then what is this nature that physics, biology, language sciences, philosophy, and the arts are trying to convey even before they became separate fields? (Prado and Taam 2017: 41) Proust (1919 quoted in Tocchetto and Thiesen 2007: 175) refers to memory as the sentiment in which recollections are no exception, but ruled by habit:

What best remind us of a person is precisely what we had forgotten (because it was of no importance, and we therefore left it in full possession of its strength). That is why the better part of our memories exist outside us, in a blatter of rain, in the smell of an unaired room or of the first crackling brushwood fire in a cold grate: wherever, in short, we happen upon what our mind, having no use for it, had rejected, the last treasure that the past has in store, the richest, that which, when all our flow of tears seems to have dried at the source, can make us weep again (free translation).

Proust (1919) remind us that we are humanists and that even when the official historiography tends to perpetuate the memory of the winners or the most powerful, we understand that, inevitably, multiple memories intercalate and complete each other in the composition of the life of a city.

The history that was written in the scope of archaeological research in Sobrado dos Toledos is inserted in this appropriation of spaces by the dominant elite of Iguape and, in a way, by the different social groups that lived there, thus fitting in the perspective of heritage and memory conservation. It is difficult to measure whether the feeling of belonging or not belonging to the past can be experienced by the groups that inhabit Iguape today. The aristocracy is no longer the same; furthermore, slavery in Brazil is not an official institution anymore, although it still persists.

We believe that, in a way, the multiple experiences in the building may suggest paths for reflection. As we have seen, the building has changed over time, has had several uses and meanings, and the excavations carried out so far have brought more complexity and depth to Iguape's history. The sobrado, built on the city's economic peak, represented the ostentation of its main social groups. The building has been reframed over the years, reconfigured in its structure and use, transformed from a meeting place for pilgrims to a bar, office, cinema, and culminating in a nightclub. There is no way to let these experiences and eclectic meanings go unnoticed.

All these reflections about the urbanization of the city and the occupation of different groups could be transmitted to the young students from Iguape, the adult workers, and inhabitants of Iguape, with the hopeg that the memory of the city will be known and perpetuated.