The term mulatto in compared perspective: skin color classifications between Mariana and Luanda (18th century)

• Grant number: 21/08899-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Aldair Carlos Rodrigues
• Grantee: Gabriel Antonio Bomfim Seghetto
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/04086-6 - The mulatto category from a compared perspective: racialization in Luanda and Mariana (Eighteenth Century), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This project proposes an investigation of the political and social meanings of the skin color classification mulatto in the 18th century. It will focus on two Portuguese colonial cities: Luanda (in Angola) and Mariana (in Minas Gerais). The two cities were, respectivelly, an important port where enslaved were shipped to Minas Gerais and one of the main final destinies of the captives in that Brazilian captaincy. By the implementation of the comparative history method, this research will attempt to grasp the similarities, differences and potential dialogues between the ethnic/racial ideas of each place. The analysis of the social constructions about the mulattoes will be done under the light of the occupation of overseas territories added to the Portuguese empire. The following types of historical sources will be utilized: baptism registers, notarized last wills, population maps, travel journals and letters. The investigation will extract, from those documents, the many uses of the word mulatto as it was employed in the sociocultural contexts they were produced. By comparing the definitions of mulatto established in the aforementioned realities, it will be possible to understand the continuities and discontinuities in the ethnic/racial concepts of the Portuguese overseas spaces. Also, it will allow a discussion about the shifting reality of the populations from each territory.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SEGHETTO, Gabriel Antonio Bomfim. Ambivalent meanings: luso-african identities and color categories in eighteenth-century Angola. 2024. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.