The duty to live as a Catholic: prostitution in the captaincy of São Paulo (c. 1747 - c. 1786)

• Grant number: 25/03872-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar
• Grantee: Maria Eduarda Martins Mendes Cordeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is dedicated to studying the social status of prostitution based on its definition as a crime in the field of activity of the Ecclesiastical Court of São Paulo, throughout the 18th century. The criminal proceedings produced by the institution are the sources that best contribute to this intention, given their discursive dedication to alternative practices to the matrimonial sacrament that cause public impact. In turn, the prioritized temporal selection matches the emergence of the bishopric of São Paulo and the beginning of its greater intensity activities among the population under the jurisdiction of the respective diocese, in addition to understanding the period in which the São Paulo captaincy itself undergoes significant economic, administrative and demographic transformations. Aiming to contribute to a specialization of the concept of prostitution, in its particular uses in the seventeenth century of São Paulo, the investigation hypothesizes the possibility of defining the practice as a craft - one of the survival alternatives within the framework of colonial patriarchy - and, concomitantly, as a phenomenon that crosses sociability between genders, considering the scope of Catholic normative action. (AU)