question 1
(Fuvest) “Brazilian colonial society "inherited classical and medieval conceptions of organization and hierarchy, but added to it systems of grading that originated from the differentiation of occupations, race, color and social status. (...) The essential distinctions between nobles and commoners tended to level out, as the sea of natives that surrounded the Portuguese colonizers made every European, in fact, a kind-man in potential. The availability of Indians as slaves or workers enabled immigrants to fulfill their dreams of nobility. (...) With Indians, I could enjoy a truly noble life. The Gentile became a substitute for the peasantry, a new state, which allowed for a reorganization of traditional categories. However, the fact that they are aboriginals and, later, Africans, different ethnic, religious and phenotypically of Europeans, it created opportunities for new distinctions and hierarchies based on culture and color." (Stuart B. Schwartz, INTERNAL SECRETS).
From the text, it can be concluded that:
a) the classical and medieval differentiation between clergy, nobility and peasantry, existing in Europe, was transferred to Brazil through Portugal and became the fundamental element of Brazilian society colonial.
b) the presence of Indians and blacks in Brazilian society led to the emergence of institutions such as slavery, completely unknown to European society in the 15th and 16th centuries.
c) the Indians of Brazil, being small in number and easily dominated, had no influence whatsoever on the constitution of colonial society.
d) the differentiation of races, cultures and social status between whites and Indians, whites and blacks, tended to blur the classical and medieval distinction between European noblemen and commoners in society colonial.
e) the existence of a different reality in Brazil, such as the large-scale slavery of blacks, in no way altered the medieval conceptions of the Portuguese during the 16th and 17th centuries.
question 2
(Uff) "The festivals and religious processions were among the great entertainments of the population, which harmonizes perfectly with the extreme appreciation for the external aspect of worship and religion that, among us, has always manifested itself (...). What is being celebrated is the success of the gold company rather than the Blessed Sacrament. The party has an enormous congenial virtue, guiding society towards the event and making them forget about their daily chores (...). The party would be like the rite, a special moment constructed by society, a situation that emerged "under the aegis and control of the social system" and programmed by it. The social message of wealth and opulence for all would gain, with the party, enormous clarity and strength. But the message would come as encrypted: the baroque uses illusion and paradox, and so luxury was ostentation pure, the pomp was false, the wealth began to be poverty, the peak decadence" (Adapted from SOUZA, Laura de Mello e. Gold Disqualified. Rio de Janeiro, Graal, 1990, pp. 20-23)
According to the author of the text, the society born from the mining activity, in Brazil in the 18th century, would have been marked by a "false ostentation" because:
a) mining, for having attracted a huge population contingent to the region of Gerais, provoked a constant crisis of malnutrition, which decimated only the slaves, the central labor force of this activity, which was compensated by the constant achievement of parties;
b) the set of gold and diamond mining activities was volatile, giving that company an opulent appearance, but as fleeting as the exploration of the rapidly depleting deposits;
c) there was a profound contrast between those who monopolized the great exploitation of gold and diamonds and the vast majority of the free population, who lived in a state of total poverty, even facing hunger, due to the high population concentration in the region;
d) wealth was the keynote of this society, being distributed to all who worked in it, free and slaves, which had as a counterpart the promotion of luxurious religious ceremonies, even if the power of the Church in this region;
e) the luxurious baroque architecture was a way to convince all those who sought to live off the exploration of deposits that enrichment was easy and social ascension open to all layers of that society.
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