The MODERN IDEAL VERSUS COMPANION SPECIES ANALYZING THE CASE OF THE DOVECOTE AT THE PRAÇA DOS TRÊS PODERES

Main Article Content

Luiz Mors Cabral
Luisa Signe Couto

Abstract

This article investigates the case of the pigeon coop in the Praça dos Três Poderes, in Brasília, as a point of tension between the modern ideal of urban cleanliness, expressed in the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, and the persistent presence of pigeons as companion species. The aim is to discuss how the installation of the pigeon coop symbolically challenges the principles of modern urbanism. The research adopts an interdisciplinary approach, based on urban studies, architecture, history, and animal studies, analyzing newspaper records and critical bibliography. The data reveal that pigeons, once human allies, have been transformed into urban specters since the consolidation of the modernist project. It is concluded that the pigeon coop represents a symbolic fissure in the rationalist discourse and can serve as a pedagogical tool for teaching contemporary epistemologies that recognize interspecies cohabitation in urban space.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Mors Cabral, L., & Signe Couto, L. (2025). The MODERN IDEAL VERSUS COMPANION SPECIES: ANALYZING THE CASE OF THE DOVECOTE AT THE PRAÇA DOS TRÊS PODERES. SBEnBio Biology Teaching Journal, 18(nesp.1), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.46667/renbio.v18inesp.1.1931
Section
Dossiê Temático: Ensino de Biologia diante do Antropoceno: fabulando respostas, experimentando caminhos
Author Biography

Luisa Signe Couto, Universidade Federal Fluminense - UFF, Niterói, RJ, Brasil

Aluna do programa de bacharelado em Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal Fluminense.

References

ALLEN, Barbara. Pigeon. London: Reaktion Books, 2009.

ARMSTRONG, Chris; WILKINSON, Helen; MEADE, Jessica; BIRO, Dora; FREEMAN, Robin; GUILFORD, Tim. Homing Pigeons Respond to Time-Compensated Solar Cues Even in Sight of the Loft. PLOS.One. Maio, 2013. Disponível em: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063130. Acesso em: 08 jul. 2025.

BLECHMAN, Andrew. Pigeons. New York: Grove Press, 2006.

BLECHMAN, Andrew. Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird. New York: Grove Press, 2007.

BRASIL e Portugal vão permutar pombos no dia sete de setembro. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 3 set. 1959, p. 7.

CACHIMBO quer verba para pombos “de papel passado”. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 8 nov. 1958, p. 7.

CNOTKA, Julia; MӦHLE, Martin; REHKÄMPER, Gerd. Navigational Experience Affects Hippocampus Size in Homing Pigeons. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, v. 72, p. 233-238, Novembro, 2008. Disponível em: https://karger.com/bbe/article-abstract/72/3/233/46888/Navigational-Experience-Affects-Hip

pocampus-Size?redirectedFrom=fulltext. Acesso em: 10 jul. 2025.

COSTA, Lúcio. Registro de uma vivência. São Paulo: Empresa das Artes, 1991.

DESPRET, Vinciane. Que diriam os animais? Fábulas científicas. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2021.

FONSECA, Maria Cecília Londres. Brasília: arquitetura e utopia. Brasília: Editora UnB, 2003.

GEHL, Jan. Cities for people. Washington: Island Press, 2010.

HAAG-WACKERNAGEL, Daniel.; GEIGENFEIND, Ila. Protecting buildings against feral pigeons. European Journal of Wildlife Research, v. 54, n. 4, p. 715–721, 2008.

HARAWAY, Donna. The companion species manifesto: dogs, people, and significant otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003.

HARAWAY, Donna. When species meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

HARAWAY, Donna. Staying with the trouble: making kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

HARDING, Sandra. Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women's lives. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

HOLSTON, James. The modernist city: an anthropological critique of Brasília. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

IPHAN – Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional. Patrimônio cultural de Brasília. Disponível em: https://portal.iphan.gov.br. Acesso em: 6 jun. 2025.

JEROLMACK, Colin. Animal archeology: domestic pigeons and the nature-culture dialectic. Qualitative Sociology Review, v. 3, n. 1, p. 74–95, 2007.

JEROLMACK, Colin. The Global Pigeon. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 2013.

LATOUR, Bruno; WOOLGAR, Steve. Laboratory life: the construction of scientific facts. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.

LATOUR, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1993.

LE CORBUSIER, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris (Org.). Carta de Atenas. São Paulo: Hucitec, 1989.

MORA, Cordula V.; DAVISON, Michael; WILD, J. Martin; WALKER, Michael M.; Magnetoreception and its trigeminal mediation in the homing pigeon. Nature, v. 432, p. 508-511, Novembro, 2004. Disponível em: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03077. Acesso em: 11 jul. 2025.

MUMFORD, Eric. The CIAM discourse on urbanism, 1928–1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.

POMBAL na praça dos três poderes. Correio Brasiliense, Brasília, 30 mar. 1961a, p. 8.

POMBAL na praça dos três poderes. Correio Brasiliense, Brasília, 13 ago. 1961b, p. 1.

POMBAL de Brasília receberá mil aves. Correio Brasiliense, Brasília, 5 abr. 1962, p. 8.

POMBOS da praça Macuto, de Caracas, virão para a Cinelândia em abril próximo. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 16 jan. 1959c, p. 11.

POMBOS da Cinelândia em dieta forçada. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 11 abr. 1959a, p. 8.

POMBOS da Cinelândia não vão morrer de fome. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 11 set. 1959b, p. 9.

POMBOS são bonitos, mas saiam de baixo. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 3 ago. 1961a, p. 13.

POMBOS são ameaça no Leblon. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2 dez. 1961b, p. 8.

PROJETO do pombal. Correio Brasiliense, Brasília, 11 abr. 1961, p. 10.

ROLNIK, Raquel. A cidade e a lei: legislação, políticas urbanas e território na cidade de São Paulo. São Paulo: Studio Nobel, 1989.

SOCIAIS de Brasília. Correio Brasiliense, Brasília, 20 ago. 1961, p. 9.

STENGERS, Isabelle. Another science is possible: a manifesto for slow science. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2018.

VIDROS do Louvre. Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 26 mar. 1961, p. 8.

ZANNONI, Nora; WIKELSKI, Martin; GAGLIARDO, Anna; RAZA, Atif; KRAMER, Stefan; SEGHETTI, Chiara; WANG, Nijing; EDTBAUER, Achim; WILLIAMS, Jonathan. Identifying volatile organic compounds used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons.