: the article discusses the main intellectual and academic narratives that studied “the rural” in Brazil through the focus of the disciplines of Social Sciences over the last 50 years. It suggests that there are several original themes, some of them persistent because of the social history of the country. Starting in the 1970s, there is a period of approximately 20-25 years that represents the richest phase of these studies. The article concludes that, in the current century, a diminishing interest in rural studies has been observed, especially in Sociology and Anthropology, and a growing hegemony of interpretations linked to the neoclassical tradition of Rural Economics.