Relações de mando, poder e dominação no mundo açucareiro da Mata Sul Pernambucana no período de 1594 a 1780

Abstract

This research, within the scope of a doctorate, aims to study and problematize the material culture built in the colonial period in Mata Sul de Pernambuco, between 1594 and 1780. With this purpose, we seek to understand the variety of architectural elements implemented there and resulting from a continuous accumulation of sociocultural, economic and architectural factors constituted in the colonial period in the region. In this analysis we discuss the interconnection between material culture, the colonial sugar society forged from the occupation of the Mata Sul territory of Pernambuco and the relations of power and domination resulting from this process. The integrated use of research into the spaces where those buildings were built, the interpretation of written sources, the environmental aspects of the region and the historical and social context in which such historical phenomena occurred were relevant to the completion of this work. Therefore, we understand that, as it is a work that moves in the field of New Cultural History, we used theoretical and methodological guidelines that favored the use of different types of documentary sources. Furthermore, we use approaches and discussions from other areas of knowledge, such as Geography, Architecture, Sociology, Archeology, Psychoanalysis and, above all, History. In this way, we sought to debate, throughout this trajectory, proposals presented by different authors, which served as a contribution to the process of epistemological construction of this work. As the research progressed, we were able to understand how the colonial company, the dominant groups and their institutions strategically used architectural parties, typical of the period, to spread, replicate and legitimize the relations of power, command and domination that favored them over society as a whole, whether in rural areas or colonial villages. Thus, we understand that the layout and implementation of a colonial urban nucleus, big house, chapel, slave quarters, convents or chamber house and jail followed a political, economic and cultural logic that sought to symbolically materialize the various social hierarchies that were circumscribed in the colonial sugar world.