Jalapão+80: The Spiral of a Geographic Journey

Abstract

This article examines the transformations of Jalapão–a border region among the states of Tocantins, Bahia, Piauí, and Maranhão–by contrasting a 2023 geographical expedition by a research collective with the pioneering journey undertaken by the IBGE in 1943. Drawing inspiration from Anna Bella Geiger’s “Circumambulatio,” the study adopts the “spiral” as a metaphor to analyze the region’s spatial metamorphoses spanning eight decades. The research underscores how agricultural expansion and the deferred demarcation of internal borders generated a legal vacuum exploited for land grabbing, a situation that persisted even after the state of Tocantins was established. Through a movement of approximation and distancing, the article also details the protocols employed in both expeditions to explore and comprehend the region, thereby highlighting the situated character of geographical knowledge and gaze.