Language, Identity, and Power in Colonial Brazil, 1695- 1822
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University of Cambridge Faculty of History Language, Identity, and Power in Colonial Brazil, 1695- 1822 Luciane Cristina Scarato Newnham College This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History September 2016 Summary Language, Identity, and Power in Colonial Brazil, 1695-1822 Luciane Cristina Scarato This dissertation investigates the diverse ways in which the Portuguese language expanded in Brazil, despite the multilingual landscape that predominated prior to and after the arrival of the Europeans and the African diaspora. It challenges the assumption that the predominance of Portuguese was a natural consequence and foregone conclusion of colonisation. This work argues that the expansion of Portuguese was a tumultuous process that mirrored the power relations and conflicts between Amerindian, European, African, and mestizo actors who shaped, standardised, and promoted the Portuguese language within and beyond state institutions. The expansion of Portuguese was as much a result of state intervention as it was of individual agency. Language was a mechanism of power that opened possibilities in a society where ethnic, religious, and economic criteria usually marginalised the vast majority of the population from the colonial system. Basic literacy skills allowed access to certain occupations in administration, trading, teaching, and priesthood that elevated people’s social standing. These possibilities created, in most social groups, the desire to emulate the elites and to appropriate the Portuguese language as part of their identity. This research situates the question of language, identity, and power within the theoretical framework of Atlantic history between 1695 and 1822. Atlantic history contributes to our understanding of the ways in which peoples, materials, institutions and ideas moved across Iberia, Africa and the Americas without overlooking the new contours that these elements assumed in the colony, as they moved in tandem, but also contested each other. Focusing on the mining district of Minas Gerais for its economic and social importance, this dissertation draws on multiple ecclesiastical and administrative sources to assess how ordinary people and authoritative figures daily interacted with one another to shape the Portuguese language. 1 Table of Contents Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1 List of Charts .................................................................................................................................. ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... iii List of Maps .................................................................................................................................. iii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................iv Preface and Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1: Linguistic diversity, evangelisation, and power in colonial Brazil ............................. 28 The age of exploration and language contact ......................................................................... 32 Language, population, and migration ..................................................................................... 35 Colonisation, evangelisation, language and power ................................................................ 40 The Amerindian and African (general) languages ................................................................... 55 The standardisation of Amerindian and African languages: a colonising mechanism of power ................................................................................................................................................. 61 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 2: Education and censorship in the shaping of the Portuguese language in colonial Brazil and Portugal ...................................................................................................................... 83 Education in Portugal and Brazil: an overview ........................................................................ 86 The role of education in the Pombaline reforms .................................................................... 91 Religion, printing, and language .............................................................................................. 99 Censorship: standardising language, measuring power ....................................................... 107 Literacy in the colony and its Atlantic connections............................................................... 122 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 136 Chapter 3: The implications of educational reforms: teachers, students, and the formation of local literate groups in the gold mining district ........................................................................ 139 Reactions to and continuities of the Pombaline Reforms .................................................... 142 Miscegenation and education: negotiating the ‘bloody stain’ ............................................. 147 Signature, literacy, and occupations ..................................................................................... 161 Moving teachers, circulating books, spreading Portuguese ................................................. 174 Censorship, spelling, and translation: standardising Portuguese ......................................... 180 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 193 Chapter 4: The court in Brazil, education, and the construction of a Brazilian identity ........... 195 i The materiality of teaching activities .................................................................................... 201 Discipline to educate: second language teachers, schools, and ‘maisons d’éducation’ ....... 207 British and French cultural influence in Brazil: foreign travellers’ views on colonial education ............................................................................................................................................... 215 The Royal Library in Rio de Janeiro and the French learning tradition ................................. 222 Portuguese periodicals in London: reflections on language and educational methods ....... 227 British influences in Brazil and the Lancaster method .......................................................... 237 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 244 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 247 Maps .......................................................................................................................................... 257 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 265 i. Primary manuscript sources ............................................................................................... 265 ii. Primary printed sources .................................................................................................... 267 iii. Secondary sources ............................................................................................................ 270 List of Charts CHART 1: Minas Gerais: Order of Christ Applicants’ Geographical Origins ......................... 127 CHART 2: Minas Gerais: Holy Office Candidates’ Geographical Origins .............................. 128 CHART 3: Minas Gerais: Order of Christ families’ occupations ...................................... 131 CHART 4: Minas Gerais: Holy Office families’ occupations .................................................. 132 CHART 5: Minas Gerais: Order of Christ applicants’ occupations .......................................... 133 CHART 6: Minas Gerais: Holy Office Candidates’ Occupations............................................. 134 CHART 7: Seminário de Mariana: de genere applicants’ geographical origins ....................... 152 CHART 8: Seminário de Mariana: de genere fathers’ geographical origins ............................ 152 CHART 9: Seminário de Mariana: de genere mothers’ geographical origins .......................... 153 CHART 10: Seminário de Mariana: de genere applicants’ occupations .................................. 154 CHART 11: Seminário de Mariana: de genere fathers’ occupation ......................................... 155 CHART 12: Seminário de Mariana: de genere witnesses’ age ................................................. 165 CHART 13: Seminário de Mariana: de genere witnesses’ geographical origin ....................... 166 CHART 14: Seminário de Mariana: de genere witnesses’ occupations ................................... 168 CHART