Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T21:31:37.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relations of the Negro with Christianity in Portuguese America*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

René Ribeiro
René Ribeiro*
Affiliation:
Instituto Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, fernambuco, Brazil
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The African came to know Christianity, in this part of the New World, as a system of values (the Christian ideas), and as a normative structure (the Catholic Church). These two were interrelated, although frequently in conflict with other values and other structures emerging from the social system which was established as a consequence of Portuguese colonization. In his quality as slave he was integrated into an inter-relational combine which included new forms of ecologic adaptation, of economy, of inter-personal relationships and their regulation, on a rural basis, and of a slave-holding, latifundiarian and senhorial orientation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , January 1958 , pp. 454 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

René Ribeiro is a council member of the Instituto Joaquim Nabuco de Pesquisas Sociais of Recife, Pernambuco, and also a practicing medical psychiatrist. Among his more important works are the following: The Afrobrazilian cult-groups of Recife. A study in social adjustment (Evanston, 1949); “O Negro em Pernambuco,” Revista do Instituto Arqueológico e Histórico de Pernambuco, XLII (1948–1949), 7–25; Religião e relações raciais (Rio de Janeiro, 1956). Address: Rua Henrique Dias 281, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.

References

1 Freyre, Gilberto, Casa grande e senzala (2 vols.; 6th ed.; Rio de Janeiro, 1950).Google Scholar

2 Malheiro, A. M. Perdigão, A escravidão no Brasil. Ensaio histórico-jurídico-social (2 vols.; Rio de Janeiro, 1866–1867), II, 86 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zavala, Silvio, “Le contact des cultures dans l’histoire mexicaine,” in L’Originalité des Cultures (Paris: UNESCO, 1954), p. 277.Google Scholar

3 Tannenbaum, Frank, Slave and citizen (New York, 1947), pp. 45–56 Google Scholar; Oracy, Nogueira, “Côr da pela classe social,” Communication to the Seminar on Plantation Systems of the New World (Pan American Union, Washington, 1957; mimeographed).Google Scholar

4 Grioule, Marcel, “Le problème de la culture noire,” in L’Originalité des Cultures, pp. 377–392 Google Scholar; “Philosophie et religion des noirs,” in Les Monde Noir, etc. Présence Africaine, Nos. 8–9 (1950), pp. 307–321.

5 For the consequences of the disruption of the African slave from his family, see Meek, C. K., A Sudanese kingdom, an ethnographical study of the Jukum-speaking peoples of Nigeria (London, 1931)Google Scholar, who says: “The absence of a ‘family’ is to a Negro the last state of degradation,” because of the reciprocal obligations between generations.

Ward, W. E. F., A history of the Qold Coast (London, 1945), p. 96 Google Scholar states: “Domestic slavery existed among the Gold Coast nations; but such domestic slaves were regarded to a very considerable extent as members of their master’s family (Rattray, Ashanti law and Constitution, Chap. V) and there would be very strong opposition to the idea of selling them into plantation slavery beyond the seas, even if the numbers available had been sufficient. In any case, the numbers were far from sufficient; and to supply slaves in sufficient numbers for the white man’s demands, a whole crop of wars broke out among the nations of the interior, the chief object of which was the capture of hordes of prisoners. The slave trade was one of the principal stimuli leading to the growth of the Ashanti military power; though Ashanti never reached such a pitch of cold-blooded efficiency as a slaving state as did the neighbouring kingdom of Dahomey.”

6 Antonil, Andre João, Cultura e opulencia do Brasil por suas drogas e minas (São Paulo, 1923), pp. 91 f.Google Scholar

7 do Amaral, Braz, “Os grandes mercados de escravos africanos; as tribus importadas; sua distribuição regional,” in Fatos da Vida do Brasil (Bahia, 1941), pp. 89–167.Google Scholar

8 See Leite, Serafim, História da Companhia de Jesús no Brasil (10 vols.; Lisbon & Rio de Janeiro, 1938–1948).Google Scholar

9 Rodrígues, Nina, Os Africanos no Brasil (3rd. ed.; São Paulo, 1947), pp. 75 ff.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., p. 90.

11 Antonil, op. cit., p. 93.

12 Freyre, op. cit., II, 592.

13 Leite, op. cit., II, 592.

14 Ibid., V, 438.

15 Antonil, op. cit., p. 77.

16 Cristóvão Gouveia in Serafim Leite, op. cit., II, 355.

17 Tannenbaum, op. cit., pp. 83 ff.

18 Perdigão Malheiro, op. cit., pp. 14; 120.

19 Koster, Henry, Viagens ao Nordeste do Brasil (São Paulo, 1942), p. 326.Google Scholar

20 Ribeiro, René, “Cultos africanos no Recife,” Boletim do Instituto Joaquim Nabuco. Número especial (1952), p. 27.Google Scholar

21 “Informação do Conde de Pavolida a Martinho de Mello e Castro, Lisboa, 10 de junho de 1780,” Biblioteca Pública do Estado de Pernambuco, Ordens Reais, 1780–1781. Copy belonging to J. A. Gonsalves de Mello.

22 Perdigão Malheiro, op. cit., p. 118.

23 Koster, op. cit., p. 500.

24 Herculano, Alexandre, Da Origem e Estabelecimento da Inquisição em Portugal (Lisboa, 1859), III, 41.Google Scholar

25 Cartas Jesuíticas, II, Cartas Avulsas 1550–1568 (Rio de Janeiro, 1931), pp. 63–65.

26 Vieira, António, Sermões pregados no Brasil Il: A vida social e moral na colônia (Lisboa, 1940), pp. 30–42.Google Scholar

27 Leite, op. cit., II, 358.

28 Diario de Pernambuco, February 2, 1871.

29 Tonellare, L. F., “Notas Dominicais,” in Revista do Instituto Arqueológico e Geográfico Pernambucano, Num. 61, Vol. XI (1904), 453. Trs. Alfredo de Carvalho.Google Scholar

30 Greenberg, Joseph, “The influence of Islam on a Sudanese Religion,” in Monographs of the American Ethnological Society, X (August, 1946), 10 Google Scholar; D’Almada, André Alvares, Tratado breve dos rios de Guiné (Lisboa, 1946), p. 42 Google Scholar; N’Goma, Alberto, “L’Islam Noir” in Le Monde Noir, ed. Monod, Theodore, Presence Africaine, Nos. 8–9 (March, 1950), 333–343.Google Scholar

31 Rodrígues, Nina, Os Africanos no Brasil (3rd. ed.; São Paulo, 1945), pp. 98–100.Google Scholar

32 Koster, Henry, Viagens ao Nordeste do Brasil. Trs. & ed. Cascudo, Luiz da Câmara (São Paulo, 1942), p. 236.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., p. 353.

34 Herskovits, Melville J., The myth of the negro past (New York, 1941), p. 138.Google Scholar

35 Freyre, Gilberto, The masters and the slaves. A study in the development of Brazilian civilization. Trs. Putnam, Samuel (New York, 1946), p. 333.Google Scholar

36 Ribeiro, René, Religião e relações raciais (Rio de Janeiro, 1956), p. 111.Google Scholar

37 Bastide, Roger, “Religion and the Church in Brazil,” in Brazil: Portrait of half a continent. Eds. Smith, T. Lynn & Marchant, Alexander (New York, 1951), p. 338.Google Scholar

38 Documentos Históricos, XCI (Rio de Janeiro, 1951). Consultas do Conselho Ultramarino. Bahia (1732–1756), pp. 162–165.

39 Vieira, P. Antônio, Sermões pregados no Brasil. Vol. II: A vida social e moral na colonia (Lisboa, 1940), p. 51.Google Scholar

40 Cartas Jesuíticas II: Cartas Avulsas (1550–1568) (Rio de Janeiro, 1931), p. 123.

41 da Costa, F. A. Pereira, Anais Pernambucanos (1591–1634), II (Recife, 1952), pp. 468–469.Google Scholar

42 Vieira, op. cit., p. 71.

43 Jeffreys, M. D. W., “Some rules of directed culture change under Roman Catholicism,” American Anthropologist, LVIII, no. 4 (August, 1956), 721–731; italics mine.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 Freyre, op. cit., passim.

45 Antonil, op. cit., pp. 96 f.

46 “Ofício de Caetano Pinto de Miranda Montenegro ao Ouvidor Geral de Olinda António Carlos Ribeiro de Andrade de 24 de dezembro de 1815,” Ofícios do Govêrno, 1814–1816, livro 20, Biblioteca Estadual de Pernambuco. Copy of José António Gonsalves de Mello.

47 Nina Rodrígues, op. cit., pp. 76–90.

48 As quoted in Amaral, Braz do, “Os grandes mercados de Escravos Africanos” (Tése do Congreso de Historia da América, 1922) in Fatos da Vida do Brasil (Bahia, 1941), p. 152.Google Scholar

49 O Carapuceiro, Num. 2 (January 11, 1840).

50 Balandier, G., Afrique ambigue (Paris, 1957), p. 246. Italics are mine.Google Scholar

51 Griaule, Marcel, “Le problême de la culture noire,” in L’Originalité des cultures (Paris: UNESCO, 1954), pp. 375 f.Google Scholar

52 Ribeiro, René, “Cultos Afrobrasileiros do Recife: um estudo de ajustamento social,” Boletim do Instituto Joaquim Nabuco, Num. Especial (1952), pp. 54; 59.Google Scholar

53 Ribeiro, René, “Novos aspectos do processo de reinterpretação nos cultos afrobrasileiros do Recife” in Anais do XXXI Congresso Internacional de Americanistas, Vol. I (São Paulo, 1955), pp. 482 ff.Google Scholar

54 Bastide, loc. cit., pp. 351 f.

55 Balandier, loc. cit., pp. 242–246.

56 Parrinder, Geoffrey, La religion en Afrique Occidentale (French ed.; Paris, 1950)Google Scholar; Silva, João de Mattos e, Contribuição para o estudo da região da Cabinda [Memória ao Congresso Colonial Nacional] (Lisboa, 1904), p. 298.Google Scholar