Notes on feed in Franciscan convents in southern Portuguese America

Abstract

Although there are studies on feed in convent life in the domains of the Portuguese Empire, about the network of Franciscan convents in southern Brazil, called the province of the Imaculada Conceição, between the 17th and 18th centuries, there is little discussion about it. Classical works on the institution were limited to analysing the topic from the perspective of the prelates' government, as more information in administrative history than an area of study with its own objects. In part, the gap is also due to the fragmentary nature of the documentary corpus and the lack of material on the entry of food and daily consumption in the gatherings. Given the impossibility of approaching the problem with objective data, such as what, where and how much was ingested during the period, this article explores coeval and varied documentation, namely letters, memoirs, morals, lives, statutes, deed, to try to understand the context in which the act of eating took place. Addressing the norms and morality at the table, the means and obstacles for purchasing food can answer, even if partially, the doubts about the friar’s conduct regarding nutrition. Thus, this research seeks to describe the circumstances that guided the issue in the captaincies of southern Brazil, from 1650 to 1800, especially the articulation with secular people who participated directly in the process of providing the institutes. It follows, therefore, that this story speaks more about the strong morale connotation of food than simply the subsistence of religious people.