O governo do Capitão-mor Pedro Monteiro de Macedo na Capitania Real da Paraíba: colonos, indígenas e religiosos (1734-1744).

Abstract

The aim of this research is analyze the administration of Mor-Captain Pedro Monteiro de Macedo between 1734-1744 in the Royal Captaincy of Paraíba, discussing the office and competencies of the position of chief captain, in order to understand the main problems and consequences of its administration. For that, it was necessary to approach anthropological analysis, in the understanding that each society possessed and possesses a historicity and a socio-cultural dynamic of its own. We also sought to realize that in the case of the colonial period, we have a territory shared by settlers, religious and indigenous people. And, each group acting according to its own interests, whether around colonial administration, religiosity, conquest of territories or even assemblies against the dictates of the Portuguese Crown. For this purpose, manuscript documents of the Overseas Historical Archive were analyzed, among them: letters, permits, requirements and many other documents managed by the colonial administration concerning the administration of Pedro Monteiro de Macedo. In addition to the handwritten sources, I relied on the theoretical-methodological contributions of Antônio Manuel Hespanha, Laura de Mello e Souza, Rodrigo Ricupero, Pedro Cardim and others, in the understanding that there was a logic in colonial administration and that it was not centralized or unilateral, and there was a complex internal dynamics evidenced in the social relations between the different groups that lived in Portuguese America.