“OS SENHORES DO SENADO”: oficiais camarários e status de nobreza no Maranhão Colonial

Abstract

In proceedings of the colonial political game, the fact of belonging to the town council sparkedprestige to individuals and allowed them to produce discourses and practices of social distinction andennoblement. In the Old Maranhão, understood as a region of the Empire in the Old Regime Luso, these officersof the House reinvented the traditional concept of nobility (cutting hereditary solution) and it conformed to thecircumstances and local elements available to them. This paper intends to discuss ways and strategies used bythese men to locally reinvent the idea of nobility, shaping it to their abilities and interests, thus ensuring aneffective recognition among his peers in the colony.