Professor Russell-Wood’s detailed studies of Brazilian social history in the colonial era have long been recognised as model contributions to the history of class, race, gender and religion. This collection combines work on particular persons and groupings with survey articles on the role of the port and the frontier in colonial Brazil and on its historiography. The author describes the administration and structure of government, and the realities of royal power, with examples drawn from the port cities and the mining townships of the interior, then moves on to examine the interplay of class, religion and race with reference to brotherhoods of persons of African descent and the racially exclusive Third Orders. One group who overcame legal, physical and social constraints were women who, whether of European or African descent, contributed decisively to the economy and society of Brazil. To conclude, there are accounts of three individuals, each of whose experiences illustrate facets of the judicial system, governance and education in Portugal’s richest colony. Les études détaillées du professeur Russell-Wood sur l’histoire sociale brésilienne durant la période coloniale ont longtemps été reconnues comme un modèle de contribution à histoire des classes, des races, des genres et des religions. Cette collection allie des travaux au sujet d’individus spécifiques et de groupements à des résumés d’enquête sur la rôle du port et de la frontière dans le Brésil colonial et dans son historiographie. L’auteur décrit l’administration et la structure gouvernementale, ainsi que les réalités du pouvoir royal, s’appuyant d’exemples tirés des cités portuaires et des communes minières de l’intérieur. Il passe ensuite à l’examen de l’interaction des classes, des religions et des races en faisant référence aux liens de fraternité qui unissaient les personnes de descendance africaine, ainsi qu’aux Troisièmes Ordres qui pratiq

The internal dynamics of peasant households are an important factor in the adoption of modern agricultural techniques and hence in the survival and productive power of the peasantry. This anthropological study of a Brazilian peasant community shows that the "household estate," the commonly held property of a family, is contested between parents and children. While parents depend on the "estate" for their old-age subsistence, children hope to draw from it their traditional wedding gift of land which will provide them their livelihood. In many peasant households a silent struggle is waged over the "estate's" division. This leads to various types of production relations between parents and married children. Moreover, conflicting interests between generations are a point of "commoditization" of social relations, with important implications for peasant agriculture. Further, the position of the peasant movement is discussed, as well as its policy proposals for fostering peasant agriculture. Peasant agriculture could certainly expand into modern sectors of agriculture. But if these proposals are to be effective they must allow for the peasantry's system of inheritance and old-age care.