ABSTRACT
Focusing on two railways that crossed the mining district of Minas Gerais – the Estrada de Ferro Ouro Minas and the Leopoldina Railway Company – this chapter looks at conviviality among humans, and between them and non-humans. The discovery of gold in the late seventeenth century initiated a new phase in the Portuguese colonization of Brazil. The mining district acted like a magnet to settlers and bureaucrats from various parts of the Portuguese empire, creating a new colonization pocket in the heart of Brazil where convivial contexts sprung. The discovery of gold accelerated forced African diaspora and pushed Amerindians to the hinterlands, deepening ethnic and labor inequalities. It also changed the political, social, and power dynamics of colonial Brazil, shifting the administrative center from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. From late eighteenth century onwards, as gold mining activities declined, Minas Gerais increasingly played a pivotal role in Brazil’s rural economy that culminated in coffee exportation, followed by iron ore exploitation. Against this background, the sheer novelty of steam trains and railways mingled with traditional practices, materialities, and beliefs. By analyzing votive offerings (ex-votos) and police reports, this chapter contributes to the debate about daily practices in convivial contexts, revealing how settlers lived together and coped with inequalities and asymmetries on the fringes of progress in Minas Gerais.
