Talk:Sertão

Comments

Isn't this the same is the Cerrado? Anyways, i'll put a link on it.. Dreadnought9 17:06, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Sertão, Cerrado & Caatinga are words that frequently overlap, especially in the pen of those not familiar with specifically Brazilian geographic terminology -- but they are not synonyms.

• Sertão, according to Aurelio, the most scholarly Brazilian dictionary, is "an uncultivated place, far from densely populated areas; jungle in the hinterland of a continent; (Brazilian Northeast) the innermost and drier part of the country, far from the coast." The word is used by the Brazilian media as a popular synonym for what the IBGE terms semi-árido nordestino and refers to the valley of the São Francisco River, as well as South Piauí, South Ceará, West Paraíba, West Pernambuco, South-West Rio Grande do Norte and North Minas Gerais.
• The same dictionary gives for Cerrado the following meaning (related to Geography, the word has other meanings): "vegetation composed by low, crooked trees intertwined with low bushes and grass". The word is used by IBGE to name the original vegetation of West Minas Gerais, Goiás, South Tocantins, South Mato Grosso, East Mato Grosso do Sul, West São Paulo and the Federal District.
• Caatinga is defined as "forest-like vegetation of the Brazilian North-East composed by trees that lose their leaves during the drought, usually thick with pricks, cacti and bromelias". The dictionary also state that the regions where this vegetation was originally found are still called such.

We have, then, three words that refer to three different geographical areas: Sertão is the innermost part of the North-East, Caatinga is the are between the Green Belt (Zona da Mata) and Sertão, in the Same North-East, while Cerrado is a vegetation found elsewhere, in the Center-SouthEast.

BTW, the words are so translated by my dictionary: Cerrado = Thickets; Sertão = Backlands, Backwoods, Badlands or Outback (depending on context); Caatinga = no equivalent term in English.

Caatinga is generally translated into English as 'thorn forest'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vortinax (talk • contribs) 19:55, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I hope this will help. References: Pequeno Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, by Aurélio Buarque de Hollanda Ferreira. Dicionário Escolar Português-Inglês, Inglês-Português by Oswaldo Serpa. jggouvea 13:53, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

intro

The intro spends most of the first paragraph telling the reader what the sertao is not, before getting to what it is. It also fails to mention that it is foremost a Desert and Xeric Shrubland. The paragraph needs to be restructured.

The last paragraph says two rivers cross the sertao, but then names three?? The Rio Sao Francisco is dismissively treated, but is in fact the only non-seasonal waterway in the region. If we are referring to anything with the name "Rio", there are dozens in the 8-state region cited. I'd certainly include the Caninde-Piaui river system in state of Piaui. This paragraph needs to be deleted of completely re-focused.Sbalfour (talk) 15:43, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Close to the equator?

The Climate section says "Because the sertão lies close to the equator," ~ highschoolish: some areas of the sertao are more than 1000km distant from the equator. I certainly wouldn't be able to walk, or even drive to the equator out of the sertao. It would be better to say the sertao is completely contained in the earth's Tropical Zone.Sbalfour (talk) 15:52, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Climate section rainfall - check sources

Some areas of the sertao are xeric, meaning less than 250mm rainfall per year. See listing of Deserts and Xeric Shrublands.Sbalfour (talk) 15:58, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

land ownership

"This variability has caused extreme famines among subsistence farmers in the region, exacerbated by the extreme imbalance of land ownership throughout the sertão." Gramatically, there are two instances of 'extreme' in that sentence, and needs to be rephrased. Aside from that, the issue of land ownership and sharecropping is a wide-ranging topic that's best not mentioned, or it needs a rather more elaborate treatment that's best done in a separate article. At a minimum, there needs to be a couple of paragraphs to explain its relevance if we mention the topic.Sbalfour (talk) 16:06, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

References

The entire article lacks inline references, though there are references listed in the References section. That's insufficient however. Fictional works shouldn't be listed as references, but if interesting as history, for example, put into a For Further Reading section. Same for historical accounts like Rebellion in the Backlands. The references should cite relevant modern authorities like scholars and sources like the Brazilian government, and they should be placed inline to support factual statements.Sbalfour (talk) 17:21, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Sertao and Caatinga

There is an article Caatinga with substantially the same focus. While Caatinga originally referred to a vegetation type/ecoregion, and sertao to a geologic region, the sertao is inaccessible to humans for the same reason as it is inhospitable to vegetation: the geologic formation inhibits rainfall. The titles essentially define the same geographic area. The articles should be either merged, and one title become a redirect, or one article summarized, the information moved to the other, and a hatnote See Main Article <other> added. This is likely to result in a controversy. What we shan't want, is for editors to be expanding both of these articles, without considering them together, to avoid duplication of effort.Sbalfour (talk) 17:30, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

duplicate text!

The text of this article is copy/pasted from Northeastern Brazil#Sertão Nordestino (North-Eastern Backlands) (or vice-versa). This makes no sense at all. Either the section should be transcluded, or maybe this article should just be merged there, and the page become a redirect. This article has shaky standing to exist anyway (see previous section on this page).Sbalfour (talk) 17:42, 16 January 2014 (UTC)