Atrás dos panos: vestuário, ornamentos e identidades escravas: Colégio dos Jesuítas, Campos dos Goytacazes, século XIX

Abstract

I analyze the dressing and adornment practices as layers of the construction of identities among slaved individuals in the Colégio dos Jesuítas, Campos dos Goytacazes, state of Rio de Janeiro, in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the dress layer, I examine the ways in which the slaves wore different items, especially buttons, in a society that imposed new ideals expressed in the European fashion and, at the same time, limited their access to and use of certain objects and clothing. The second layer is that of the ornaments and charms wore on the body: beads, bracelets, rings, earrings and perforated coins. More than simple adornments, I consider them as hybrid things, objects that affect and influence the individuals and give meaning to their dailyexperiences. Finally, I examine the role of materiality in the constitution of being a slave and the multiple ways it was used to demarcate identity, group and individual boundaries.