ABSTRACT
The objective of this article is to describe the process of developing concepts by geographer Manuel Correia de Andrade. When dealing with the conception of the Northeast, he presented the division into three regions: the hot and humid forest zone, the hot and dry hinterland, subject to periodic droughts, and a transition zone, the wilderness. This is the foundation of the traditional duality, antagonistic but complementary: the Northeast of sugar cane and cattle, divided by the Northeast of small property and polyculture. These are the three regions whose name was consecrated by tradition and reiterated by science: the “extreme Northeast” of Gilberto Freyre and the “sacred kingdom” of Ariano Suassuna.
KEYWORDS
Geography; Manuel Correia; backcountry.