Minha alma por herdeira: morte e perspectiva de salvação de testadores da comarca do Rio das Mortes (XVIII)

Abstract

In the region of the Rio das Mortes, in the eighteenth century, death was a matter of great relevance to Catholics, and from good death the salvation of the soul depended largely. This research will show how the Church constructed and controlled the view of the faithful regarding the process of leaving the earthly world and the entrance to the other world, and the representations that supported imagination modes of supernatural realities. Its objective is to understand a complex system that defined the structure of attitudes towards death, designed to give an answer and meaning to the last moments. Above all, it is hoped to offer indications on testers’ daily living conditions. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of religiosity in the Minas of the eighteenth century, especially the attitudes, social and cultural practices that underpinned man identities who lived in the region, and his relation to the phenomenon of death and its explanatory value. Through spiritual legacies we will seek to know a little the spaces of social and cultural experiences of the region. This area of investigation will reveal extremely intricate relationships linked to a Christian religion marked by a space of Beyond symbolic representation that has given meaning to the existence of the county inhabitants in this period.