THE BUILDING OF THE AUTHORITATIVE DISCOURSE: AGRONOMIC KNOWLEDGE, RESEARCHES AND CONTROVERSIES ON JUTE IN SÃO PAULO

Abstract

This paper analyses the issues and controversies on the possibilities to develop the jute cultivation in the State of São Paulo. The research is focused on the extensive agronomic documentation of the first half of the 20th century, allowing us to trace back the discourses and the practical activities performed aiming at the establishment of new agricultural activities, among them the attempts to acclimatize the jute. The analysis emphasizes the tensions, claims and controversies, as well as the development of the discursive matrices and the institutionalization of a new knowledge, seen as scientific, technical and modern: the agronomic knowledge.

Keywords:
Jute; discourses; agronomy; science; agriculture