Greater Palmares

Chapter 8, “Greater Palmares,” turns to the natural world and environmental history to trace additional inheritances and legacies of Palmares. Throughout Pernambuco (and what became Alagoas in 1817), African toponyms provide suggestive clues about how and where Palmares lived on after 1695. In both urban and rural settings, Zumbi place-names, as well as others (e.g., Lunga), suggest a presence that also raises questions about how and when the names came into existence. Though precise answers are often elusive, in many cases it is possible to periodize the toponyms and then advance interpretations and hypotheses about their relationship to Palmares and other streams of the African diaspora.