Concubinage in Portuguese America: Feminine Resistance, Affectivities, Families and Mestizaje in the 18th Century Sabará County

Abstract

This article aims to analyze concubinage in the 18th century Sabará district, more specifically in the first half of this century, and does so considering its aspect as a consequence of the will and choice of the subjects involved and not in the spectrum of marginal relations. Within a sociocultural approach, the study comprises the practice of ‘mancebia’ as a result and resulting of the intense and complex process of ‘mestizaje’ processed in Portuguese America. As a source, ecclesiastical debauchery and wills were privileged and helped to think of some of the intricate plots of daily life that resulted in unjustified family arrangements before the authorities of the time, but socially accepted and reproduced within everyday life.