The vital event of birth: the appropriations and records made by the Catholic Church and the Brazilian national State in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The study examines family sociability in Teresina during the second half of the nineteenth century, focusing on childhood practices and the rituals that marked this earliest stage of life. Empirically, the work is based on primary sources, such as parish baptismal records, in addition to memoir accounts, as well as Catholic regulations, particularly the First Constitutions of the Archbishopric of Bahia and the legislation of the Imperial State between 1860 and 1880. The investigation also sheds light on the process of implementing the regulations created by the Imperial State, as well as the pace at which the population gained access to civil registration and the quantitative dimensions of such registration, highlighting resistance to the use of the new form of recording the vital event of birth, while showing how, for a long period extending into the twentieth century, segments of the population would continue to have the baptismal register as the only formal record of their existence. Apparently, Catholic records and their sacramental character seemed to enjoy greater legitimacy in society than civil records, which were solely associated with the state.