"Ao serviço de Deus e de sua majestade" - Pe. João Felipe Bettendorff: Dinâmicas coloniais e olhares sobre os pobres e pobreza do Maranhão nas crônicas missionárias (1661-1684)

Abstract

This work addresses the discourses about poverty in missionary chronicles in colonial Maranhão during the 17th century. The research aims to analyze discourses about poverty to understand how these discourses are connected in the colonizing dynamics. In addition to trying to bring together elements of missionary narratives to understand the colonization dynamics of the Portuguese Catholic monarchy. Taking as a source of analysis the work of Father João Felipe Betendorff “Chronicle of the Mission of the Priests of the Society of Jesus in the State of Maranhão”. It also seeks to relate the representations of poverty in missionary discourses linked to the uses of poverty as a political instrument. Through the analysis of discourses on poverty, we understand that this topic was generally used to obtain regional favors, such as tax exemptions, privileges, charges and incentives to improve the local economy. These speeches must be thought of within the process of expansion and consolidation of the colony.