Skin color, distinctions and offices: Portugal and Portuguese Atlantic spaces (XVI to XVIII centuries)

Abstract

This text shows how the Lisbon political core and the colonial elites dealt with the color issue in the Atlantic space, especially in respect to the provision of places and even to access to intermediate social distinctions; it investigates how the political core based its views on that theme in several chronologies; it also surveys whether in some locations the presence of native blood among higher social groups modified a simplistic perception of the chromatic variations. Since the issue covered grosso modo the strong period (1570-1773) when the blood purity rules were in force in Portugal, it discusses the possible connection / contamination between these two realities.

Miscegenation; secular offices; clergy