Moderation in excess: study on the history of drinks in colonial society

Author(s)

Lucas Endrigo Brunozi Avelar

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-12-03

Examining board members

Henrique Soares Carneiro; Rodrigo Monteferrante Ricupero; Denise Bernuzzi de Sant\'Anna

• Advisor: Henrique Soares Carneiro

Abstract

This study investigates some aspects of the history of drinks in the eighteen century. From an initial characterization of the domestication process of being drunk in the modern era, provides the key element of moralism Lusitanian relating to the question of the uses of wine and spirits. From this we extract the hypothesis that moderation would be the value that guided the alcoholic behavior in Portuguese society. In the colonial society, examined in the last part, we argue that the value of the ideological function served to mask the experience of the inhabitants of those areas, this experience marked by different forms of drinking and drunkenness. In a society organized for the expropriation of resources by availing itself of slave labor, moderate drinking has clashed with the different circumstances presented to the colonists in the tropics. (AU)