“The Feet of Commerce: Mule-trains and Transportation in Eighteenth Century New Spain” explores the work of the muleteers of colonial Mexico. Muleteers satisfied the material demands of New Spain’s consumers by distributing trans-Atlantic and domestic products throughout the viceroyalty, including fine Chinese and English fabrics; cacao from Guayaquil (Ecuador); olive oil, books, wines and other spirits from Spain. Internally, muleteers supplied urban and mining centers with agricultural goods and raw materials (like wool and tobacco) for their manufacture. In the seventeenth century, mule-based transport coalesced into a professional service that allowed the muleteers to adapt to new demands, establish business relationships, and become the primary mode of transport in the eighteenth century. Moreover, the professionalization of the land-based system of transport (la arriería) generated a level of trust that enabled muleteers to contract their services to all members of New Spain’s commercial networks because the system had proven itself as an efficient method of transportation. As the primary means of transport in the eighteenth century, la arriería was the crucial vehicle by which institutions and individuals negotiated New Spain’s commercial terrain; without it, New Spain’s economy could not function. Muleteers transacted with merchants in urban centers and at the ports of Veracruz and Acapulco, negotiated with local and viceregal authorities for transportation contracts and to ensure the safety of their mule trains, and reacted to obstacles on the road that impeded the flow of commerce. Through their daily business transactions, their influence on the building and maintenance of roads, and their trade networks, muleteers who dedicated their lives to la arriería sustained the economic viability of the Spanish colonial system. / text

O tropeirismo é uma temática frequentemente exaltada por diferentes compositores e intérpretes da música regionalista gauchesca, dada sua importância no desenvolvimento econômico e cultural do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Esse fenômeno, que se estendeu do final do século XVII até meados do século XX, no sul do Brasil, além de ter sido responsável pelo surgimento de inúmeras vilas e cidades ao longo das rotas, proporcionou um imenso intercâmbio cultural. Essa mescla das diferentes culturas envolvidas no fazer tropeiro criou uma espécie de identidade comum. Vestígios culturais decorrentes do contato entre birivas – como eram conhecidos os tropeiros paulistas e os habitantes de Cima da Serra, no RS – e gaúchos manifestam-se na culinária, na dança, na descrição das lidas de campo e na linguagem, especialmente na seleção lexical. Neste trabalho, propomos uma análise léxico-semântica da letra de quatorze canções gauchescas de cunho regionalista, a fim de investigar de que maneira a música regionalista reconstitui a história do tropeirismo. Almejou-se verificar se ocorre a mitificação da figura do tropeiro à semelhança do que acontece com o gaúcho e, após as análises, observou-se que isso de fato ocorre. A partir do levantamento das lexias relacionadas à atividade tropeira presentes nas canções, apresentamos uma proposta de modelo de organização da memória sobre o tropeirismo em campos lexicais. De acordo com Abbade (2012), a organização de um determinado conjunto de lexias em campos lexicais vai além da mera contribuição para estudos linguísticos: também evidencia a história e os costumes do grupo linguístico que as utiliza. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2016-05-11T19:34:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silmara Argenton.pdf: 1208883 bytes, checksum: 99b6426a9caaaebf71e832098cb660c9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-11T19:34:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silmara Argenton.pdf: 1208883 bytes, checksum: 99b6426a9caaaebf71e832098cb660c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-11 / The tropeirismo, the occupation of the muleteers, is a theme which is frequently exalted by different composers and interpreters of gauchesca regional music, having in mind its importance in the economic and cultural development of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This phenomenon, which extended from the end of the XVII century until the middle of the XX century, in the southern states of Brazil, besides being responsible for the emergence of countless villages and cities throughout the routes, provided a huge cultural exchange. The mingling of the different cultures involved in the regular activities of the muleteers, the tropeiro, created a kind of common identity. Cultural tracescaused by the contact between birivas – as were known the muleteers from São Paulo and the inhabitants of northern area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, called Cima da Serra region – and gaúchos (the inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul) are expressed in the culinary, dance, description of the work in the fields and in language, especially revealed in the choice of lexical items. In this research, we propose a lexical-semantic analysis of the lyrics of fourteen gauchesca regional songs, in order to investigate how the regional music reconstitutes the history of tropeirismo. The aim is to verify whether the mystification of the muleteer occurs, similarly to what happens to the gaúcho, which our analysis proved to be right. Based on the survey of the lexis related to the activities of the tropeiros present in the songs, we propose a model of organization of the memory of tropeirismo in lexical fields. According to Abbade (2012), the organization of the lexicon goes beyond the mere contribution to linguistic studies: it also evidences the history and the customs of the linguistic group that uses it.

O tropeirismo é uma temática frequentemente exaltada por diferentes compositores e intérpretes da música regionalista gauchesca, dada sua importância no desenvolvimento econômico e cultural do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Esse fenômeno, que se estendeu do final do século XVII até meados do século XX, no sul do Brasil, além de ter sido responsável pelo surgimento de inúmeras vilas e cidades ao longo das rotas, proporcionou um imenso intercâmbio cultural. Essa mescla das diferentes culturas envolvidas no fazer tropeiro criou uma espécie de identidade comum. Vestígios culturais decorrentes do contato entre birivas – como eram conhecidos os tropeiros paulistas e os habitantes de Cima da Serra, no RS – e gaúchos manifestam-se na culinária, na dança, na descrição das lidas de campo e na linguagem, especialmente na seleção lexical. Neste trabalho, propomos uma análise léxico-semântica da letra de quatorze canções gauchescas de cunho regionalista, a fim de investigar de que maneira a música regionalista reconstitui a história do tropeirismo. Almejou-se verificar se ocorre a mitificação da figura do tropeiro à semelhança do que acontece com o gaúcho e, após as análises, observou-se que isso de fato ocorre. A partir do levantamento das lexias relacionadas à atividade tropeira presentes nas canções, apresentamos uma proposta de modelo de organização da memória sobre o tropeirismo em campos lexicais. De acordo com Abbade (2012), a organização de um determinado conjunto de lexias em campos lexicais vai além da mera contribuição para estudos linguísticos: também evidencia a história e os costumes do grupo linguístico que as utiliza. / The tropeirismo, the occupation of the muleteers, is a theme which is frequently exalted by different composers and interpreters of gauchesca regional music, having in mind its importance in the economic and cultural development of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This phenomenon, which extended from the end of the XVII century until the middle of the XX century, in the southern states of Brazil, besides being responsible for the emergence of countless villages and cities throughout the routes, provided a huge cultural exchange. The mingling of the different cultures involved in the regular activities of the muleteers, the tropeiro, created a kind of common identity. Cultural tracescaused by the contact between birivas – as were known the muleteers from São Paulo and the inhabitants of northern area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, called Cima da Serra region – and gaúchos (the inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul) are expressed in the culinary, dance, description of the work in the fields and in language, especially revealed in the choice of lexical items. In this research, we propose a lexical-semantic analysis of the lyrics of fourteen gauchesca regional songs, in order to investigate how the regional music reconstitutes the history of tropeirismo. The aim is to verify whether the mystification of the muleteer occurs, similarly to what happens to the gaúcho, which our analysis proved to be right. Based on the survey of the lexis related to the activities of the tropeiros present in the songs, we propose a model of organization of the memory of tropeirismo in lexical fields. According to Abbade (2012), the organization of the lexicon goes beyond the mere contribution to linguistic studies: it also evidences the history and the customs of the linguistic group that uses it.