A Quilombo Called Canudos - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 50

TheSertãooftheBahianbacklandswaslargelyacattlelandscape.Theanimalshadbeen
introduced in the early sixteenth century by the d'Avila family, along with the earliest
slaves, and slowly moved from the coast to the banks of the Rio São Francisco to the
most remote currais —cattle stations where the herds roamed, barely tended by black
slaves,probablydescendedfromtheWestAfricanHausa-Fulanipeople,whoselivestock
traditionsandhorsemanshipfromtheSahelwereeasilyadaptedtothearidBrazilianout-
back. 43 Though outwardly placid, the ranching Sertão was a landscape of violence. The
backlands were militarized in invisible but lethal ways, as landlord vigilantes, bandits,
slave, and Indian hunters, and quilombo militias roved the land enforcing their interests
and taking their opportunities.
Cattleweresovoraciousanddestructivethattheywereforbiddenwithinfiftymilesof
the coast. 44 The takeover of vast areas by cattle herders monopolized land; indigenous
livelihood systems—gardens, orchards, and hunting grounds—were trampled by serene
bovine pillagers. Fellow travelers—invasive grass species that traveled to the New
World as straw in the rough sleeping pallets of the slave ships and as fodder for horses
and cattle—wreaked havoc in tandem.
Cattle were initially maintained under a slave system in the Sertão, but drovers and
cowboys were part of a “slavery without overseers,” similar to that of gold mining in
Minas Gerais or Amazon forest collection, where close surveillance was impossible. 45
The capataz , or cattle boss, might travel with a couple of slaves and perhaps an Indian
cowboy as well. 46 The capataz operated under a reward known as sorte or luck, where
one of every four calves born could go to his herd to sell or breed as he preferred, an
incentive structure that mimicked that of Sahelian and West African herders. This form
oflivestockadministration wasstillinplaceinthelatetwentieth centuryinthesavannas
of the northern Brazilian state of Roraima and the grasslands of Marajó. 47
This system involved both bondage and patronage, and while hierarchical, it required
considerableflexibilitytofunctioninaworldwellbeyondformalmeansofsurveillance,
wheretherancherhadunchallengedrightstoadministerjusticewithintheconfinesofhis
holdings and to “manage” justice beyond them. In the immensity of the outback, where
rustling by runaway slaves, Indians, bandits, and other ranchers was a likely possibility
(and where a fazendeiro 's own vaqueiros might themselves be captured and resold, or
might flee to a quilombo ), the great stockowners created their own militias for control
of people and resources on the cattle frontier. They were necessary for defending their
honor, to punish transgressions, and as troops to fight the endless inter-oligarchic family
feuds. 48 Thereshufflingofownershipoflands,springs,andwaterwaysaftereverymajor
drought provided a constant stimulus to personal and political rancor among the elites.
The great landowners were permitted by law to maintain order however they chose
to; they were authorized to provide couto or asylum for their militias. There jagunços