Prática batismal e os cuidados com o corpo e com a alma no Brasil colonial (séculos XVI e XVII)

• Autor(a) principal: Semeão, Lucas de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Oficina do Historiador
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/oficinadohistoriador/article/view/41788
• topic: Religiosity; Catholicism in Brazil; Indigenous History and Culture; Religiosidade; Catolicismo no Brasil; História e Cultura Indígena

The sacrament of baptism is intended to purge original sin from the soul. In colonial Brazil, baptism took on other meanings besides the original. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, it came to be seen as a healing tool. Among the Indians, however, the theological conception was disconnected from the ritual itself, making the Gentiles believe that baptism constituted, in itself, a remedy against the males of the body. During the 16th century, on the other hand, the church’s first sacrament also took on another meaning among the Indians, antagonistic to the previous one: it came to be seen as a ritual that led to death. In this conflict of views, priests and sorcerers, two social types who exercised traditional domination in their communities, taking the lead in the dissemination of each of these two views, competing to win followers among the natives. The purpose of this article is to show the validity of this thesis, through the chronological exposition of fragments of letters, lives of saints and other writings from the colonial period.