Mill & System

Massangana in Pernambuco

Abstract

This article has its intended focus on the rural property denominated Engenho Massangana (Massangana Mill), located in the south of the Zona da Mata region in Pernambuco. Initially we comment about the “hook” used in the preservation of part of this asset, which is the connection to the name of an important “actor” in the intellectual scene in Pernambuco: Joaquim Nabuco. Next, we try to add reports about the origin and the meaning of the name “Massangana” and the connection of this toponym to the old rural property. Subsequently, we deal with the form and the need to look at (and to see) the area of the deactivated “Massangana” as a productive system, allying the place, the sugar mill and its connections to the exterior world, that is, with the territorial space which it was a part of and where it was embedded. In the conclusion we put forward and design different actions which we believe to be essential to be carried out in order to know and preserve the physical remains, even archaeological, of this deactivated “sugar factory”.

Keywords: Pernambuco. Massangana. Sugar mil. Archaeology. Nabuco.