HISTORY OF MANY SHADES AND ORIGINS: GENEALOGIES OF BROWN PEOPLE IN THE HILLS OF RIO GRANDE (FREGUESIA DO SERIDÓ, 1788-1834)
Bronws; Mestizajes; hinterland; Seridó; History of the Hinterlands; Qualities.
The scope of this research was to understand who were the “brown” people in the hinterlands of the Captaincy of Rio Grande, in Ribeira do Seridó, during the 18th and 19th centuries and how these representations were created. In methodological terms, we start from the historiographical review of the discursive analysis and the genealogical study of “mestizo families”. About the sources, the investigation through the examination of ecclesiastical and judgment records, also using databases of the research project “History of miscegenations in the sertões of Rio Grande do Norte through a lexicon of ' qualities' (18th-19th centuries)". We have had as a motto of inspiration the onomastic method of Carlo Ginzburg and Carlo Poni, with the documentary comparison, developing an approximate dialogue with the approach of Micro History. With the support of discussions about the dynamics of miscegenation , qualities and conditions, we tried to understand how brown people were represented in Ribeira do Seridó as a construction that tries to combine different ancestries in a single group, with the purpose of discussing other possibilities for understanding the hinterland beyond the Luso-Brazilian elements.