Os colecionadores da natureza: a invenção de si mesmo através da patrimonialização do mundo natural

Abstract

A geographer in Minas Gerais, an engineer in Bahia, an educationalist in Rio de Janeiro, all of them interested in “collecting nature”. These people, who come from such different social and geographical backgrounds and see the collectable in the natural world, have in common the fact of owning Private Natural Heritage Reserves (Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural, RPPNs). These natural areas protected by Brazilian environmental legislation were voluntarily created in their rural properties. By discussing these cases I intend to reflect on the role played by objects in the construction of identities, in the organization of personal and family memory, in the legitimacy of ideas, and in the establishment of systems of power, considering the importance of the practice of collecting and exposing in the configuration of subjectivities.