Crioula Jewelery: Subversion and Power in Colonial Brazil

Abstract

The use of jewels has always been present over time in the most diverse civilizations. Containing meanings beyond ornamentation, jewels can be analyzed as objects that materialize social positions, spiritual power, joy, love, mourning, protection, among other characteristics. During the Brazilian Colonial Period, the emblematic “jewels of Afro-Brazilian Creole” were produced and used, which are considered the first copies of the eminently national jewelry. These jewels also represented the economic ascent and subversion to the sumptuary laws that prohibited the use of these adornments by the slaves, as well as veiled religious devotions and put into practice codes of behavior, social hierarchy and power among the freed and liberates from this period. For this, I turn to the historiography of Colonial Brazil, the history of jewelry design and anthropological studies concerning material culture.

Keywords

• Joias de Crioulas Afro-Brasileiras
• Joalheria
• Período Colonial Brasileiro
• Cultura Material
• Hibridação