O "nefando" na fronteira: Francisco Coelho e a produção da moralidade sexual em São Luís do Maranhão (1672-1682)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the production of sexual morality in São Luís do Maranhão between 1672 and 1682 through the trajectory of Francisco Coelho, who was accused of sodomy and prosecuted by the Portuguese Inquisition. Situated within the field of Atlantic History and Connections: Cultures and Powers, the study examines how behaviors considered deviant were identified, classified, and transformed into objects of social surveillance within a colonial context shaped by the frontier condition of Portuguese Amazonia. Methodologically grounded in Microhistory and Connected History, while also engaging with the History of Sexuality, the research employs a reduced scale of observation to analyze Francisco Coelho’s individual experience and relate it to the Atlantic circulation of moral norms, practices, and discourses linking São Luís and Lisbon within the Portuguese Empire. The primary documentary corpus consists of Inquisitorial Trial no. 1717, preserved at the Portuguese National Archive of Torre do Tombo, complemented by legal, ecclesiastical, and administrative sources. The analysis demonstrates that the accusation of sodomy did not emerge from a single event or from the exclusive action of inquisitorial institutions. Its consolidation resulted from the circulation of rumors, memories, testimonies, and narratives shared by different social groups, producing a form of public reputation capable of transforming suspicions into socially recognized forms of moral classification. Within this context, categories such as “nefandous”, “sodomite”, and tibiro functioned as instruments of moral and political classification, turning attributed behaviors into recognizable and socially sanctioned identities. The study shows that the intervention of the Holy Office constituted only one stage in a process that had already developed within the everyday dynamics of colonial society. The dissertation further demonstrates that the production of sexual morality was deeply connected to disputes involving honor, reputation, authority, and local power. It also highlights the agency of the accused himself, who mobilized documents, witnesses, and legal strategies in defense of his social position. Although he was acquitted by the Inquisition, the closure of the proceedings did not eliminate the ambiguities and uncertainties that permeate the documentary record, nor the social mechanisms of suspicion that sustained the investigation. The study concludes that the Amazonian frontier actively participated in the construction and reconfiguration of the moral languages of the Portuguese world, functioning as a space of circulation, translation, and negotiation of values. Through a microhistorical approach, Francisco Coelho’s trajectory illuminates the mechanisms through which sexuality, public reputation, power, and social control converged in the making of colonial order.