Morada de casas : cultura material, domesticidades e mudanças sociais (Minas Gerais, Sabará - século XVIII)

Abstract

In the present work we present the colonial houses of Minas Gerais, as constructed structures, analyzing them under architectural, monetary and archaeological aspects from the perspective of material culture. We note that the increasing appreciation of urban properties, throughout the 18th century, with due local specificities, would accompany the characteristic transformations of the urban world at the end of the Modern Age, observed in various parts of the Globe. In the homes of elites and other urban segments, together with the introduction of values such as intimacy, privacy and comfort, modern domesticities have emerged, which can be observed in the differentiation and specialization of the rooms of the residences. As the main source, we used 804 post-mortem inventories of the Sabará term, with a total of 1144 real estate and 798 house descriptions, from 1713 to 1799. When entering the homes, we observed the details, the social life of things, and the world of goods, presenting 52 types of furniture identified in the documentation. The spread of furniture sets, especially in the second half of the 18th century, would also demarcate the emergence of new spaces in the homes of elites, innovating the sociability rituals, increasingly centered on the home. In the same way, we will see how the kitchen, in a dialectical movement, when approaching the house, would constitute itself as one of the main agglutinating spaces of social changes in this period, which was also reflected in the “kitchen train”. We identified 85 types of household items that were found in cooking and food consumption areas. We highlight the continuity of the artifacts of combustion and cooking of groceries, as well as the introduction of new utensils, such as forks and crockery, disseminating values related to urbanity and the European civilizing project. Finally, we analyze the “sociogenesis” of the taste of Minas Gerais through the materiality and the cultures that predominated in their backyards.