Disappearance of the Dowry: Women, Families, and Social Change in São Paulo, Brazil, 1600-1900 9780804743624

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DISAPPEARANCE OF THE DOWRY

MURIEL NAZZARI

f)isoppeo•onre of flfite f)om•y WOMEN,

FAMILIES,

AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

(I600 .. I900)

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA I 99 I

Stanford University Press Stanford, California © 1991 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

CIP data appear at the end of the book

TO THE MEMORY OF BESSIE ARCHER SMITH, MY MOTHER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project could not have been carried out without the encouragement, economic support, and outright help of many persons and organizations. A grant from the Tinker Foundation permitted me to make a preliminary trip to Brazil in the summer of 1981 to locate the necessary documents. Research in Sao Paulo during 1982-83 was partially supported by a Woodrow Wilson Research Grant in Women's Studies. I thank George Nazzari, without whose moral and economic support the project would have been impossible. My children and grandchildren have backed me all along, and my appreciation and love go to them. I remember with gratitude my months of research in the Arquivo do Estado de Sao Paulo, where D. Maria Gloria Martinelli and Azoardil Martinelli gave me friendship and invaluable aid. During the months I spent at the Arquivo do Ministerio de Justic;:a at Vila Leopoldina, its director, Sr. Benedito Chaves, greatly facilitated the location of documents. I also appreciate the help of the personnel of the library of the Facultade de Direito of Sao Paulo, the Arquivo da Curia Metropolitana in Sao Paulo, the library of the lnstituto de Estudos Brasileiros, the Museu Paulista, the Biblioteca Municipal, and, in Rio de Janeiro, those of the Arquivo Nacional, the Biblioteca Nacional, and the Arquivo Hist6rico da Secretaria de Estado das Relac_;:6es Exteriores. I thank Linda Lewin who, in Sao Paulo in June 1981, gave me invaluable

Vlll

Acknowledgments

advice on where to find documents, on what books to consult in the library of the School of Law, and on the bureaucratic procedures necessary to get permission to work in the archive of Vila Leopoldina. I owe a debt of gratitude to Heleieth Saffioti of the University of Araraquara, who listened patiently to the development of my ideas and graciously lent me her apartment for several weeks. Other scholars I thank for allowing me to share my concerns while in Sao Paulo are Bela Biancho, Ruth Cardoso, Ralph della Cava, Mariza Correa, Peter Fry, June Hahner, Miriam Moreira Leite, Maria Luiza Mardlio, Laima Mesgravis, Fernando Novais, and Robert Slenes. Fellow researchers in Brazil helped by providing hours of conversation where ideas could be discussed. I thank Serafina Traub Borges do Amaral, John French, Kathy Higgins, John Monteiro, Mary del Priore, and Julio Caio Velloso. In the United States I received encouragement and moral support from Vaneeta D'Andrea, Carolyn Cooper, Jean Hein, and Catalina Stroll. I am most grateful to Emilia Viotti da Costa, who directed the dissertation, providing an insightful critique at every stage of the work. I also appreciate the encouragement I received from Nancy Cott. Though I have not followed their advice in every instance, I especially thank Silvia Arrom and Richard Graham, who carefully read and commented on subsequent drafts of the book. My choice of topic owes much to Silvia Arrom, who encouraged me to continue my research on marriage by investigating the practice of dowry, and who suggested the sampling technique that would permit such a longitudinal study. Richard Graham provided the challenge that spurred my final analysis of nineteenth-century change in the family, and he carried out detailed, thorough, and questioning readings of the manuscript. M.N.

CONTENTS

Tables and Figures

xi

Note on Currency

xiii

Introduction

XV

PART ONE: THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (I 600- I CHAPTER I

The Family as the Basis of Society

CHAPTER 2

The Importance of Dowry

CHAPTER

3

6 5 I)

The Marriage Bargain

PART TWO: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (I

700- I 769)

41

CHAPTER

4

Transition in the Family and Society

43

CHAPTER

5

Continuity and Change in the Practice of Dowry

59

CHAPTER

6

A Changing Marriage Bargain

73

Contents

X

PART THREE: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (I 800- I

869)

87

CHAPTER

7

The Growth of Individualism

CHAPTER

8

The Separation of Business from Family

I02

CHAPTER

9

Decline of the Dowry

I I4

o

A New Marriage Bargain

I30

CHAPTER I I

Problems with the Dowry

I49

coN c L us 10 N

Disappearance of the Dowry

I63

CHAPTER I

Appendixes Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

TABLES AND FIGURES

Table I. Production (Seventeenth Century) Table 2. Concentration of Wealth by Assets and Indians Owned (Seventeenth Century) Table 3· A Dowry Compared to a Brother's Inheritance Table 4· Recipients of the Remainder of the Ten;a by Sex and Marital Status of the Testator (Seventeenth Century) Table 5· Ownership of Indians and African Slaves (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) Table 6. Concentration of Wealth Among Eighteenth-Century Property Owners Table 7· Dowry-Giving in Relation to Wealth (Eighteenth Century) Table 8. Dowry as Percentage of Legftima (Eighteenth Century) Table 9· Cola